Redshift
by SpecialCryogonal
Summary: After realizing that living a "normal" life isn't going to work for her, Mars decides that she has to rescue Cyrus from the Distortion World, no matter what the cost. [4 years post-Platinum verse] So far, the story contains intense action sequences, fantasy violence, an alcohol mention, and soon illness (that Distortion World, man). I will add to this list as I go.
1. Chapter 1

4/15/2017: I did some editing of chapter 1, and I'm going to try to actually continue writing this now, since I finally feel like working on it, yay!

"I'm sorry, Mars. I can't come to Sinnoh with you. I have friends and family here, I can't just leave them to go on a crazy excursion to find your old boss. And to be perfectly honest, my advice to you is to find a new direction. The past is... well... the past, and it's not going to come back. I mean… people drift apart, that's just a fact of life. Besides, who knows, even if your old boss is alive somewhere, he might not even remember you now. Or maybe _he_ moved on. There's plenty out there for you, don't let one delusional man from your past keep you down."

This is one of the last things that Mars had heard from her Unovan "friend", to which she had responded that fine, she was going to go find Cyrus, and that she didn't need help from a jerk like him. Which was true, she really didn't. Even though she had once thought him the sweetest, kindest, and wisest young man she had ever met.

No, Mars could handle herself well enough, and she was going to prove it. She had come all the way from Unova back to Sinnoh by herself, and if anybody was going to break Cyrus out of the Distortion World, it would surely be her. The red-haired former Team Galactic commander put the pokéball (which contained Redshift, a Zoroark; a Pokémon that her old friend had given her as a gift when it was still a Zoura) she had been looking down at away and stood up. It was time to search the dilapidated old Team Galactic Eterna base, which had miraculously not been knocked down yet, and look for any sort of hint that may lead her closer to finding Cyrus. Preferably before somebody caught her here and had her arrested.

Footsteps echoing on the rusty metal flooring, Mars made her way up a set of stairs and over to a disarray of forgotten boxes and overflowing storage cabinets. She then set the flashlight she was holding down and got to work on pulling out pile after pile of paper and sorting through the mess of information that the papers contained. Most of the information was completely irrelevant and quite frankly beyond Mars' comprehension, but a few hours into the search she came across something vaguely promising.

Mars had found what seemed to be a manila folder containing some research Charon had done on ghost-type Pokémon around four-and-a-half years ago- half of a year before Team Galactic had come to an end on Spear Pillar. With the report in one hand and her flashlight in the other, Mars poured over the report, looking carefully for anything mentioning Giratina, the legendary antimatter Pokémon that had appeared to take Cyrus away.

Most of the report was about ghost-type Pokémon and their unique ability to possess people and other Pokémon, and Charon's experiments regarding that. Reading further through the rather dry text, Mars stumbled across a small blurb that lifted her spirits slightly. It read:

 _Although it is, at the moment, impossible to know for sure, it is extremely likely that the legendary antimatter god Pokémon, Giratina, is also able to possess humans and Pokémon. However, due to the legendary nature of Giratina as well as the fact that it is primarily composed of antimatter (however stable said antimatter may be), it is thought that being possessed by such a Pokémon would be severely detrimental to both one's mental and physical health. Of course, the chances of this actually happening are very slim, seeing as Giratina remains sealed in the Distortion World to this day._

The report then went back to droning on about other ghost-types, but this small patch of text was certainly a start. While the report itself didn't tell Mars too much that she didn't already know, it confirmed something important- Charon had been aware of Giratina before the incident at Spear Pillar. This meant that Charon may have a clue as to how to get into the Distortion World.

Of course, there was also a major problem here- Charon had been arrested around three-and-a-half years ago, and Mars had no idea where he was being kept, let alone if he was even still alive. Still, this had to be an effort worth pursuing, so long as there was even the slightest chance that it could lead to getting Cyrus out of the Distortion World.


	2. Chapter 2

So, I finally got myself to finish the second chapter! It's a bit longer, and chapter three will probably be even longer. Oh, and a little warning before the chapter begins- there is a bar and a small mention of alcohol, so if you really don't want to read it because of that, you can skip to the next chapter... when it's complete, that is. If not, it'll probably be a week or two from the time I'm posting this chapter. Well, hopefully, assuming that I can actually motivate myself to complete the next chapter in a timely manner. Enough of my babbling, though, time to get on with the chapter.

Mars wasn't quite sure where to start looking for information on what had become of Charon, but she knew that she had to start somewhere. Thus, she started out by using some of the money she had earned by working odd jobs in Unova to rent a small apartment in a rather run-down section of Eterna. The one-room apartment was dirty, cramped, and smelled like something in it was rotting. It didn't even include a bathroom, and the shared one down the hall must have only been cleaned on rare occasions- Mars had to make a point of holding her nose when entering it to prevent herself from gagging. While the tiny apartment wasn't anything like things had been back at Galactic, it was at least a roof over the former commander's head and (hopefully) protection from law enforcement.

Making headway seemed like an impossible task- how the heck was Mars supposed to figure out which prison Charon was being kept in, and how exactly was she supposed to go in and break him out? She couldn't just waltz into a prison complex and demand to have him let go. For all she knew, he could be dead anyway. Still, Mars prowled the town for information day and night, but always wearing the same brown wig. The wig was actually a Team Galactic wig that had happened to come in the wrong color, which Mars had taken with her after clearing out her bedroom post the Spear Pillar incident.

Nothing came out of her search for information at first, which seemed more hopeless by the day. After all, she had no contacts now that she had moved away from the region for several years. Utterly frustrated, Mars decided to take a break from searching one night and order a drink or two at a nearby bar. Little did she know that this was where she would catch her lucky break. As it happened, Mars was simply minding her own business and sipping her drink when the person next to her spoke.

"Y'know, lady, that hair of yours... there's something about it that looks familiar." Mars looked at the man next to her that had just spoken. As far as she could remember, the man, who looked to be twenty-two or so, had been in the bar since before she had walked in. Mars was just about to brush him off as a creep and change seats when she realized exactly what he must be saying. He recognized the wig she was wearing as a Team Galactic wig! Well, either that or he thought it really was Mars' hairstyle and it simply reminded him of Team Galactic.

"It does?" Mars responded warily, ready to get up and leave the establishment if the man happened to out her as a Team Galactic member.

"Yeah, the way you're wearing it... my little sister used to have her hair like that, too. Pretty sure it was part of the organization she joined, Team Galactic. I didn't really see much of them, was still living at home in Sunyshore, and for some odd reason the Galactics never really came there. Well, except for my sister, but that was only to see us- erm, her family. She sure wore that green bowl cut proudly, though. Now that I think about it, it might have been a wig, but she didn't ever say."

"Um, yes, it could have been," Mars replied, not sure if this conversation was going in a direction that would get her into trouble or not. However, Mars was kind of curious as to what the man had to say, so she let him keep talking.

"Now my older brother, he didn't like her prancing around with that bowl cut on, oh no. You see, he was a new recruit for the Sinnoh police. They never much got along, but after that they would hardly even talk to each other! He told her that she'd end up getting arrested if she hung out with that silly little space cult any longer. She never did, and as far as I know the only one that they actually arrested was some creepy old scientist." Mars had been getting ready to walk out before something bad happened, but at the mention of Charon, she froze.

"They arrested a creepy old scientist, did they? And here I thought that the Sinnoh law enforcement were completely useless... no offense to your brother, I mean." If this man knew something, anything about Charon, this could potentially be a lead. Of course, Mars told herself, she shouldn't get too excited, it could be that the man only knew about Charon's arrest and nothing more.

"It's okay, never did think too highly of my showoff older brother, and I assure you, he's as useless as the rest of them. Actually, I don't even think it was the Sinnoh law enforcement that arrested the old man, I heard it was actually some guy from the Interpol. All the Sinnoh Police did was take him to jail and helped to testify against him in court. I forget exactly what my brother said, but I think they took the prisoner to somewhere off of Route 215 or something after the trial was over. Said something about fifteen years and solitary confinement. I say that old man will never see the light of day."

"Well, that's very interesting, I uh, never followed up on that trial." This would certainly be some helpful information. Still, one question remained.

"Do you know if he's still alive? I mean, the old Team Galactic scientist, that is." This really was the question now. If Charon was dead, there went that plan, and Cyrus might never be taken out of the Distortion World. Come to think of it, Mars had no idea if Cyrus was still alive in there, either. Still, Mars needed to take the plan one step at a time.

"I'd think so, at least he was last I heard, but really, who knows? Anyway, I guess I shouldn't really be telling you all of this, but I figure it can't hurt if the only one I'm telling is a pretty lady like you." It seemed that the time had come to leave the restaurant. As helpful as this man Mars met had just been, he was rather repulsive, at least by Mars' standards.

"Wow, that's really fascinating, and- oh, I just noticed the time, and I really do have to get back to my apartment now, or I'll be late for work tomorrow." Mars quickly paid her bar tab and got up to leave.

"Wait lady, I never got your name... or your number!" By this time, however, Mars had already made her way out the door and into the street on her way back to her apartment.

Now that Mars had gotten a lead, the next day was much more productive than the last few. She found out exactly where the prison was located, and from what she could find, it seemed pretty likely that Charon was still alive.

There was, however, still a question that Mars had no idea how to approach- how exactly she would break into the prison and get Charon out. The task itself seemed pretty impossible considering the place's amount of security. Besides, she still didn't know where in the prison Charon was being kept, other than "solitary confinement". Hell, she didn't even know where "solitary confinement" was in the prison. It wasn't as if she would have time to roam around the prison and look for Charon, that is if she could even get in at all.

The idea finally came to her when she was passing by the Underground Man's house and had overheard two people walking out and talking about their shiny new underground kits. Having completely forgotten that the Sinnoh Underground existed, Mars hadn't once considered it as a method to find her way to Charon without being seen. Now, however, it seemed like the perfect place to start enacting her plan. She wouldn't even need an underground kit, since she had caught a Drilbur in Unova that had now evolved into a Excadrill.

Once she had gotten back to her apartment room, Mars used her laptop to look up a map of Sinnoh and a map of the Sinnoh Underground. She then put the Sinnoh Underground map under the region map on an image editor and drew the path she wanted to take over the picture. Once this was done, Mars opened up the text document she had been recording information in and started to write up a plan.

First, Mars needed to acquire a car. Preferably a van, since that would most likely come in useful once Cyrus was taken out of the Distortion World... that is, if her plans succeeded. Anyway, once she had a van, Mars would need to get said vehicle into the Sinnoh Underground and park in a place where she could make a clean getaway. Then, she would command Excadrill to dig upward and right into the prison. Next came the tricky part- Mars would have to carefully watch the hole dug by Excadrill from the Sinnoh Underground side while Mars' Zoroark would make his way into the prison illusioned as a guard.

Next, Zoroark would look around the prison as fast as he could for the solitary confinement area and then proceed to find a way of getting Charon out. Of course, this would be rather difficult especially considering that Mars' Zoroark didn't speak human, not to mention the fact that getting Charon out would most likely require a key. Still, Mars was determined to go through with the plan, and was sure that there was some way to make it work.

Once the planning phase was complete, Mars got ready to put her plans into action. She uploaded the map of Sinnoh and the underground onto her phone, packed up, and left her dirty apartment, probably once and for all. She then found a used car dealer who wouldn't ask too many questions and spent a good half of her remaining money on a van. Finally, it was time for Mars to start on her mission. Sure, there were a million ways that it could go wrong, but since this might be the only way to get into the Distortion World and find Cyrus, it was well worth a shot.


	3. Chapter 3

Over the next few days, Mars did some preparing. She drove as close as she could get to the prison to scope things out, and planned an escape route that went from the underground spot that she would infiltrate the prison with and ended at a spot farther on Route 215. At the exit spot, Mars had her Excadrill make a ramp that lead to the underground, making sure the dirt was packed solid enough to drive on. Thankfully, Excadrill was strong enough to accomplish this, and Mars got the van down into the underground with some more help from her Pokémon.

Going over her list, it seemed that the stage was set. Now all that was left to do was perform, and hopefully it would go well.

After a bit of subterranean driving, Mars found a spot that, according to her phone's GPS (which she would shut off shortly), she should be in what had appeared to be the most unassuming spot to dig a hole underneath the prison.

Taking a deep breath, she sent out Excadrill to make the tunnel leading to the surface quietly as possible. The Pokémon started by digging a wide tunnel that she could fit into, but thinned out considerably closer to the surface. At the very end of the tunnel, the Subterranean Pokémon carefully made a hole above ground just big enough for a Zoroark to get through. This would be Redshift's entry point.

Once Excadrill had been returned, the Zoroark was sent out directly in front of the tunnel. From there, the Illusion Fox Pokémon carefully but swiftly climbed through the small passageway, and slipped onto the surface, currently illusioned to be invisible to the eyes of humans and (most) Pokémon.

Redshift picked up a nearby large, flat rock and placed it on top the hole to make it less visible, since trying to keep the tunnel entrance illusioned from a distance wouldn't be possible. With that done, the Zoroark headed off, planning to change disguises into a guard upon entering the prison.

Mars was then left to sit in the van and hope for a miracle. No, it wouldn't take that much, right? This wasn't the first time Redshift had needed to use stealth in order to accomplish a goal. This was just… a bit harder, that's all. A challenge, that's what it was.

Besides, if it came down to it, Redshift could just use Flamethrower to melt through the wall and get out that way, couldn't he? Mars had only seen it done before on TV, though, and wasn't sure if it would work in real life. Still, the whole escapade sure sounded like the plot of a movie.

Having nothing better to do, Mars started counting the minutes on the clock.

Tick, tick, tick, tick...

It had been an entire thirty minutes since Redshift had gone above ground, had the Illusion Pokémon been caught? Instead of letting all of the what-ifs come to mind, the young redhead attempted to focus on one fact- nobody had found the hole Excadrill had dug, and she could hear no sign of an alarm sounding. If she could just concentrate on that...

WREEEEEEEEEEE!

"Sector C6 has been breached, units report to your superiors for further instruction."

Well then.

After uttering a long string of expletives, Mars realized that she was faced with a tough decision. Should she stay in the van and wait for Redshift to come back, or should she assume the operation a failure and save herself while she could? It was probably too late, if she stayed there she would be found for sure. The fact that the sounds of people's voices mixed with Pokémon cries were audible over the sound of the alarm and coming closer was not very reassuring.

Mars sat frozen in her seat, engine on and foot on the gas pedal, ready to drive off and away from both one of her Pokémon and what could be her last chance at saving master Cyrus. Eyes wide and shaking slightly in a moment of horror and indecision, the woman really wasn't sure what to do.

It was a good twenty seconds before the cry of a Pokémon rang out over the shouts, bringing Mars back to earth. It was unmistakable as the cry of Redshift, specifically the sound that the Pokémon usually made while unleashing the move Night Daze. Using that move would make it clear to everybody that Redshift was, in fact, a Zoroark. Thus, Night Daze was strictly reserved for emergencies where what Redshift was didn't matter, usually to escape from a situation at all costs.

By the time she had glanced to the passenger seat to her side, the door had been yanked open and something rather large had landed in the seat next to her. After blinking for a split second, Mars realized that there were two somethings in the car with her- the Zoroark, and an older man in an orange jumpsuit.

That was all the clue Mars needed to slam her foot on the gas pedal and drive like a bat out of Hell. Thankfully, it seemed that Redshift had managed to slam the door before the van picked up too much speed and such a task would be nearly impossible.

Tires rolling on the dirt floor of the Underground, Mars could tell that the van had less traction here than on the road. Would the prison guards catch up with her? Glancing in the back mirror, she realized that the guards weren't too far behind, or their Pokémon for that matter. This gave her just enough time to swerve out of the way of a large wave of water surging towards the van by turning the corner.

However, now that she had gone down a different path than intended, it would be extremely difficult to get the van out of the Underground. She couldn't just ditch the van and have Excadrill dig them out, right? Then there was also the chance that her intended exit had already been surrounded.

Ditching the van would mean having to run on foot from law enforcement, so it was out of the options, especially considering how one of her Pokémon would have to carry Charon. How, then, were they supposed to get out of this one alive? She couldn't just turn around and go back to where the exit she had made was, that would be running headfirst into a horde of Pokémon that would stop the van in its tracks.

Think, think, think… hang on, idea! There were different paths in the underground, right? What if she took the long way around and to her exit spot? If she remembered correctly, there was another path that would get there. It was risky, but then again, anything she did from here on out was taking a huge risk.

Soon enough, the path she thought she needed to head down came up. Wasting no time in making the turn, Mars was thrown to the side and into Redshift, who pushed her back into her seat. After a near-miss with the wall, the van was now rushing towards the place where Excadrill had made a ramp. At least, it looked that way, as light peeked out in the distance.

Hopefully it was the exit, and not light from emergency vehicles and/or Pokémon fire. Well, there was only one way to find out.

Reaching the ramp, there didn't seem to be that many guards stationed there yet. Mars took her opportunity and swerved past a couple of patrol cars as well as people with Pokémon in order to get onto the ramp and make her way out.

Thankfully, Mars had finally slowed the van a good bit before swerving onto the dirt ramp, and there didn't seem to be anybody standing on it to block their way. Somehow, the van managed to climb up the dirt and out of the hole, bringing the van out of the Underground and into the world above ground.

There seemed to be some law enforcement agents and their Pokémon at the surface, but it seemed that a barricade was still being built. Mars directed the van at what appeared to be a gap in security and once again slammed the gas pedal to go through it and to what was hopefully freedom.

Then, something odd happened. Redshift stood up and poked his head out of the car, and suddenly the van disappeared. For a moment, Mars was driving what looked like nothing.

After a moment of panic, however, Mars finally realized what had happened. Redshift must have created an illusion to make it look like the van was going somewhere else, leading the police the wrong way. Once she had gotten this, Mars quickly turned down what looked like a dark, wooded road and hopefully out of sight.

Immediately, the illusion faded and Mars once again appeared to be in the van next to the Zoroark. The illusion had been a lot for the Pokémon, who had seemingly fallen unconscious.

Now that it seemed they were safe from danger, Mars slowed the van down to a more reasonable pace and returned Redshift to his Pokéball. Her heart was still racing, though. That was far too close, the situation could have gone wrong in so many ways... Actually, she really didn't want to think about it. They had made it thus far, and that was what mattered.

"So, that was unexpected." Mars jumped and nearly lost control of the van at the sound of another person's voice. Had somebody snuck into the vehicle? No, that voice was familiar. It was the voice of somebody she had once known, and despised.

"Charon, you- you're talking! I- how-"

"Is it really that surprising? I'm not a Pokémon. Or are you stunned by the fact that I'm awake? The van was going pretty fast, it was hard to take a good nap."

The old man, who hadn't said a word up until this point, just started talking out of the blue? She had expected him to sleep the whole way, that she'd have trouble even keeping him alive.

"How? I thought- after all this time..." Come on, Mars, stay focused on the road. She hadn't gotten this far just to crash into a tree.

"How old did you think I was? Seems like you didn't know that I haven't reached my eightieth birthday yet. It's coming soon, though. That is, if we get out of this one alive." That was still pretty old, but to be that lucid? Even after solitary confinement for three years?

"Yes, but- prison! Solitary confinement! I can't see- how?" A jarring bump alerted Mars that the van had started to wander off-road again. Quickly swerving back onto the road and cursing under her breath, the redhead once again promised herself to stay focused on driving.

"It's a good thing that these roads are this empty at night. You would have caused several crashes by now otherwise. To answer your question, I am in much better shape than it seems you have assumed. It was nothing, really. They gave me books to read and everything. Well, it wasn't exactly the way I wanted to spend my last few years, but what can I say. Try to use a volcano to destroy a city and they never let you live it down."

It seemed that Mars had been wrong about the old man's willpower and sanity after all. Still, she thought she detected the slightest bit of horror in the elderly scientist's voice. Whether that was imagined or not, the young woman was sure that Charon hadn't come out completely unscathed. Still, he was doing a damn good job at hiding it.

"I don't want to further lower your rather questionable driving skills, but I do want to mention that I can guess exactly why you broke me out of prison. I'm just curious as to how far you've gotten on your little quest to find your dear lost wannabe god."

Was it really that obvious? But then again, the last thing that Charon had heard Mars say was that she would find master Cyrus at any cost. It really wasn't so surprising that she had stuck to her word. The important thing, though, was exactly how much the old scientist knew about Giratina and the Distortion World.

They were pretty close to Veilstone now, with some luck she could drive through the town and not be caught and arrested. Thankfully, she had bought another licence plate to replace the old one with at the shady dealer she had gotten the van from.

Somehow, the van made it through town without being caught. Mars parked it in an underground parking lot underneath an apartment complex, and headed into the building. As it happened, the apartment's owner was a former Galactic grunt, and Mars had bribed her to let the former commander stay there without trouble on multiple occasions.

Mars was rather low on money, but a quick talk on a landline with the owner and a deal had been made.

Now it was time to go into the assigned apartment room and crash. With Mars's assistance, Charon was able to make it there as well.

The room was old and musty-smelling with numerous other problems, and there was only one small bed. Mars let Charon have it, she could sleep on the beaten-up couch.

The next day Mars could grill Charon on what he knew about the Distortion World, that is if he could remember anything at all.


	4. Chapter 4

"So I just have to go to Turnback Cave and I can get to the Distortion World through there? If it's that easy, why does nobody else know?"

Mars wasn't quite ready to believe Charon's words. She was certain that the old man was up to his usual tricks. He probably just didn't want to repay Mars, so he must have decided to get rid of her by sending her to a place that nobody returns alive from.

"Most people have no reason to go into the Distortion World, and most wouldn't even go to a place named 'Sendoff Spring' or 'Turnback Cave' if they had a reason." Charon's response made some sense, but then again...

"I'm sure some people are dumb enough to wander there. At least one of them must have seen the Distortion World and reported back. Either that or you're leaving out the part where everybody who goes there loses their memory and is sent back... or they don't return alive at all," Mars replied.

The old man simply smiled at Mars's skeptical expression. He was messing with her, he had to be.

"I never said that the way wasn't fraught with danger. You go in, and either succeed, or fail horribly and your fate will be exactly as you mentioned. However, I'm sure you didn't come all this way from Unova just to break me out of a maximum security prison cell and then give up. If you want your dear leader back, you're going to have to take some risks."

Mars sighed, not exactly sure how to retaliate to that one. The old scientist had a point.

"Fine, you're right. I've got no other leads, and no choice. I'll go straight into the face of danger and find Cyrus, even if it means risking my life. I swear, though, if you're leading me into a trap..."

Mars glared over at Charon, the same stare that she had learned from Cyrus. While it usually threatened people into listening, or at least slightly intimidated them, it seemed to have no effect on old Charon.

"You've been working on that expression, I can tell. Just like the one your boss used to use. He intimidated those grunts pretty darn well, heh heh." The old man chuckled.

"I didn't come all this way to hear you mock me, either. Tell me the rest of the facts, old man, I'm getting tired of waiting." It seemed that no matter how much Mars pushed, Charon would make her wait. It was so irritating!

"Calm down, girl. I'm going to tell you how to get your blue-haired prince back, but you need to learn to be patient."

The red-haired woman was getting really fed up. She was about to snap back, but somehow she realized that a snippy response wouldn't get her what she wanted any sooner. It took all of her willpower, but she managed to stay silent until Charon began talking again. Let the scientist play his stupid little game.

"All right, now where was I? Ah yes, I think we were talking about getting into the Distortion World through Sendoff Spring and Turnback Cave. You'll hear all sorts of speculation from people about what dwells there, but the truth may be even stranger. I'm not talking about the Pokémon, even though they are quite dangerous, especially the ghost types. The locals will talk about a sort of "fog" that hangs over the area. They'll say that walking through Sendoff Spring confuses people and can drive them insane.

"Sure, much of it is hearsay, but there is some truth to the tale. As a matter of fact, I was tasked with sending some rather unfortunate grunts on an expedition. Cyrus didn't seem too terribly interested with the place, but he wanted me to investigate the spacetime distortions that appeared to be coming from it.

"The expedition was an utter failure. If any of the grunts actually got to Turnback Cave, we'll never know. The whole squad did come back, and I told them to be grateful for it. They couldn't tell me anything about what had happened, though. It seems that if you're not careful, you'll completely forget why you came in the first place, and wander out with no memory of what 'Turnback Cave' even is.

"Still, I guess there might be a chance you could have the willpower to get through. Of course there's also the chance you'll fail horribly, but that's just the way it is.

"Cyrus claimed that spirit was useless. Though without spirit, the fool wouldn't have had a chance of getting anywhere, or even running the team. Of course, getting nowhere would have done him more good, so maybe the lesson is that people shouldn't try at all.

"Human nature can get us into some pretty awful predicaments, if there was one thing Cyrus got it was that. Of course, he didn't get that our nature is a given, so like it, learn it, love it. So much effort put into such a fool plan, it is truly a shame. That's why you quit while you're ahead, like a reasonable person. He had everything the world could provide in front of him, but he turned it away and walked straight off the proverbial cliff, the idiot."

While Charon stopped for what seemed to be a dramatic pause, Mars decided that her time to interject had come.

"Hey! I didn't rescue you from that cell just to hear you insult Cyrus. I need to get into the Distortion World through Turnback cave, and you are going to tell me how." Mars would have picked the old scientist up by the collar and pushed him into the wall, but the man was far too frail for that to help.

"I've told you what you need to know. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to start planning how to retire comfortably to a far-away place with the funds you'll pay me for my information."

Wait, what? Funds? What was the old man playing at?

"I broke you out of prison, I think that should cover my part well enough."

"Hang on, I do think I've remembered one more important piece of information. You'll need to know it to get through Turnback Cave."

"Oh, really now? How convenient for you." The old scientist was surely trying to play her, and frankly, enough was enough.

"It's a special map to solve an otherwise impossible puzzle in Turnback Cave itself. My plan is to give you the solution in exchange for the funds I need to retire for my last couple of years. I'm not stupid, you know."

Mars sighed again in frustration. Of course he would intentionally withhold information from her and demand a price, the sneaky old vulture. However, Mars had a cunning plan.

"I thought you knew as well as I did that I'm flat broke now. I spent all I had on that plan to break you out. Still, I'm not an unreasonable person, so I'll cut you a deal. You correctly tell me how to enter the Distortion World and get Cyrus out, and I'll have him give you some of his secret funds. He has to have them, I can't see him attempting his plan without a backup."

"Heh, you're not bad at trying to cut a deal. I could easily see Cyrus putting everything into his plans and not keeping any reserves. He was overconfident to a T. However, you're in luck. I happen to know that Cyrus did in fact store some funds around the world, and even buried some in Sinnoh. Still, I can't just let you rush off without some sort of collateral."

Mars shook her head. Now what? She had nothing to give Charon, the only precious thing she had was a locket of sorts with a picture of her and Cyrus at an amusement park. Cyrus had reluctantly agreed to go with her to the park for a few hours after the two had worked to seal a sponsorship deal with the park's owner.

She couldn't give that away, though! It was the only thing she really had to remember Cyrus by. But then again, if she didn't give Charon the locket, she'd stand to lose something far more precious- Cyrus himself.

"Fine, here." After a few moments of indecision, Mars finally took off the locket and handed it to Charon.

"It's real gold with a tiny bit of platinum, and my only picture of Cyrus and me is in it. I want it back once he and I get your money."

"Yes, I can see that this is real gold," Charon proclaimed after studying the locket for a few infuriatingly long minutes.

"So here's the deal, child. I'll keep this locket as collateral, and I'm not giving it back until you bring me a sum of at least 10 million poké for my retirement. In return, I will give you a map of Turnback Cave, which details how to both navigate the place and solve the riddles. That way you can find your way to your foolhardy prince and be his knight in shining armor. Then maybe the two of you can marry and live happily ever after, hehehe."

The old man snickered at his sarcastic last sentence, as if the whole thing was nothing but a laughing matter. Then again, to Charon, it probably was.

"You better not sell that locket off somewhere, I payed nearly a year's worth of salary for it. Just remember, I'm the one with Pokémon, and we can track you down again if we need to." Despite the fact that Mars was using her most dangerous-sounding tone of voice, Charon appeared to remain unperturbed.

"Oh, but it's the sentimental value that you want it back for, girl. You can't fool old Charon. Don't worry, I won't sell it off unless I find out that either you've failed, or Cyrus is dead. In that case, you'll be forced to go and start a new life, and I won't have enough to retire on."

Mars had been trying her best to not think about that outcome. Now that Charon had brought it up, all of the thoughts she had been trying so hard to suppress started coming back. All the uncertainty, anger, and frustration... the list went on. But one emotion stood out above the rest- the sheer horror at the idea that she and Cyrus might be separated for good.

The young woman clenched her teeth, trying to push all of those emotions away. Master Cyrus hadn't spent the time and effort to teach her to control her emotions for nothing, and she wasn't going to let him down now. Cyrus was alive, and she would succeed, there was no other option.

Swallowing hard, Mars forced herself back to earth. There was no point in worrying now. The task was laid out in front of her and there was no way she was turning back.

"At any rate, I will stay here with the van and most of what is left of your funds. I need to have something to pay for basic necessities, both for myself and for the two of you if or when you return. I will also invest in medical supplies for Cyrus, and myself should I need them.

"You will venture forth to Turnback Cave, which isn't very far from where we are now in Veilstone City. Just take the road to the south, and you should be able to spot a small, weathered sign reading 'Sendoff Spring: entry banned by law'. Go to the east of the sign and you should end up in front of a boarded-up gate, also stating that going past it is prohibited by law. You can dig under the fence if you need to, and don't worry about patrols. There's the occasional cop or ranger that checks out the area for anybody stupid enough to mess around in there, but other than that it's usually dead quiet. Next- hang on. You haven't interrupted me in a while."

Charon stared closely at Mars, as if trying to see her more clearly. He couldn't be concerned for her well-being, could he? ...nah, that idea was laughable.

"You're crying, you know. Then again, better to get it out now than fall apart in the middle of your mission. Just don't let Cyrus catch you sniffling like that, that is if you can find him alive, heh."

"I am not," Mars rebutted, but soon realized that the old scientist was right. She hadn't noticed it while trying to focus on Charon's speech, but there were in fact tears running from her eyes and down her cheeks.

After that moment of realization, the young woman's mind quickly turned to anger. How dare that old fool just sit there and joke around at a time like this. She was going to wipe that stupid smile off of his face, hurt him until he realized that she meant business. If she could only make him feel even a tiny part of her suffering, maybe he'd finally understand exactly what was at stake here.

"You don't freaking understand any of this, do you?" Mars spat, determined to get her point across to the old man even if it meant hurting him.

"Listen here, you ungrateful little worm. I've sacrificed everything to get myself here. Everything. Yet you still dare to mock me! I'm not messing around. I've had enough of that." The young woman edged dangerously closer to the old scientist, red eyes fixed on his face and hand at her belt near her Pokémon.

"I understand much more than you think I do, young lady. I'm just far too old to care. Now, calm down so I can tell you how to find your fearless leader. You do want that, don't you?"

Once again, the old scientist had a point, Mars wasn't getting anywhere by being angry. A few deep breaths later, and she was ready to listen again.

"Once you get into Sendoff Spring, the best advice I can give you is to just march forwards. Don't hesitate or stop to smell the flowers, even if there is quite impressive flora growing there. You have to climb up the side of a cliff in the west to even enter the spring, but I'm sure your Excadrill can handle that. After crossing a bridge to the north, you'll find yourself at the mouth of Turnback Cave.

"Head into the cave and you'll be in a large room with a passageway on each of the four walls. You'll have to travel through the correct passages in order to find your way into the Distortion World. In every room, make sure to read the inscription carved into a rock in the middle of the room. Those, along with the map I'm going to draw you, will help you solve the puzzle of which passages to take and when, though it obviously won't be that simple. You'll have ghost-type Pokémon constantly trying to mess with you, and many you will have to drive off by defeating in battle. Then there's also the strange pull of the place. As you get further in, the place may seem a bit, well, distorted. It's not just the physical properties of the place, though, it will also have an effect on your thoughts."

Mars was holding onto every word, anything to help her navigate the place. She would find her way through, she had to.

"Now, once you've followed the directions I've given you, you should eventually find yourself in a slightly different-looking room. The very air will seem distorted, and progressing will be difficult. Even Space and Time will work differently than you might have come to expect. If you manage to find your way to the center of the room, there should be a portal. This will lead you into the Distortion World. After that, I can not tell you what will happen. You will be completely on your own."

This was... a lot to take in. The young woman started stepping backwards until she was sitting on the apartment room's one and only bed. Charon knew so much about this, it was just bizarre. He had to have done a lot of research on it for Team Galactic- hang on. Hadn't Charon said that he had only sent one group to Sendoff Spring, and none of the grunts had remembered their experience at all?

Something just didn't add up. Had Charon researched the Distortion World before Team Galactic, or was he just making all this up to fool Mars? He couldn't have read it in a book, as every single documentation Mars had found on the Distortion World and Giratina over the last four years had been annoyingly vague.

"Okay, you can tell me exactly what you're hiding from me right now," Mars demanded, standing up.

"Hiding? Me, hiding something? What are the odds? Hehehehe," Charon replied, once again chuckling. Mars would make him cut the act, that was for sure. However, before she could formulate a response, Charon continued on his thought.

"Well, if you simply must know... I guess I could tell you a little. It's not something I think about much any more, and the details are terribly foggy." The old scientist had a strange expression on his face, one that Mars had never seen before. For once, Charon appeared to be deep in thought.

"Uh, okay, yeah. Tell me the story. Err, I mean, just spit it out!" Charon's reaction and facial expression had caught Mars completely off-guard. He must have noticed the utter surprise on her face even from the chair across the room, as he snickered a bit before continuing.

Looking back at the old man, Mars could now find no trace of the expression she had just seen. All that was there now was the Charon she had known (and hated) since that terrible day they had met. Maybe she had just imagined his face changing? She hadn't gotten much sleep in a few nights, and so much had happened in the last few days.

"Believe it or not, I was there. I was in charge of investigating the Distortion World once upon a time. It was a good thirty years before you first came into the world, over twenty years before even Cyrus was a small infant. I'm actually surprised at how much detail I've been able to remember for you."

"And?" Mars questioned, as Charon had stopped talking again.

"Patience, girl. Patience. Though if you're so eager to get this over with, I won't tell the whole story. Know this, though- it was a foolhardy quest for knowledge, a young man's desire for recognition and lust for fame. I was lucky even to survive, and with memories of the event, too. Something tells me that was intentional, like Giratina wanted me to learn from my folly and never send anybody there again."

Mars thought she saw another flash of that same emotion on Charon's face. Was it… sadness? Regret? However, it had disappeared by the time Mars had blinked, and Charon was once again back to being his usual self.

"I'll draw the map tomorrow morning, right now I need to sleep. This couch is yours, I'm taking the bed again." With that, Charon slowly stood up and made his way towards the bed.

Before Mars went to sleep on the couch, she sent out her Purugly to keep an eye on Charon. She wouldn't put it past him to slip off in the night with her locket.


	5. Chapter 5

A chilly gust of wind hit Mars, threatening to blow the new wig she had brought with her in the back of the van off of her head. The old brown one had been burned by Redshift before Mars had set out on her journey to Sendoff Spring.

There weren't a lot of people out today on Route 214 on this particularly cold day in late Fall. On one hand, this meant that Mars could cross large patches of land without being spotted. However, it also meant that if there was anybody out here, she would be easier to spot. The wig and change of clothes should function as a decent enough disguise, granted nobody got close enough to see her face.

The pathway to Sendoff Spring was exceedingly difficult to find. Mars wandered around for over an hour looking for the "do not enter" fence Charon had described, which was nowhere to be found.

Finally, she found what looked like a somewhat wide passageway in the middle of what looked like an overgrown cluster of trees. It appeared to lead to the east, so it seemed to be the best bet on where exactly the entrance to Sendoff Spring was.

Looking around some more, Mars spotted what looked like a post sticking out from a thicket. Pushing the foliage away, she found a worn wooden sign with the letters "S do p in" barely legible. It told the former commander that she was probably in the right place. Instead of satisfaction at finding the right path, however, she instead felt a sharp sense of foreboding. It was as if she had just been struck with an intense fear, although what the fear was of remained to be seen.

Could this be the intrinsic power of the spring? Or were Charon's words about the dangerous nature of the place getting to her? Maybe it had nothing to do with the spring, but rather the fear was of getting through these trials just to find Cyrus dead, or not at all.

To put her growing concerns aside, Mars tried to focus on the task at hand. First, she double-checked the backpack she had brought to make sure everything she needed was there. There was the bag with the food she had packed, sitting on top of the two bedrolls and some blankets that she had taken out of the van. To the side were several bottles of water, along with a rather large medical kit. The box held much less medical supplies than she had wanted to take, but there hadn't been enough room.

Then there were the side pockets, which were mostly filled with a few more small water bottles and medicine that hadn't quite fit into the first-aid box. Then, in the smallest outside zippered pocket, was her phone. If anything should happen, she was prepared to call the landline set up back at the main apartment building, where she could talk to Charon. In an emergency situation, Charon was to take the van over near Sendoff Spring to pick up Mars (and Cyrus, if he was with her).

With her supplies all accounted for, Mars zipped up the pockets and slung the large backpack behind her. It seemed that all of the weight training she had done back in Unova was paying off.

The walk through the pathway leading to Sendoff Spring was... unpleasant, to say the least. The frigid November air threatened to pierce through the coat she was wearing. Knowing Sinnoh, it would likely start snowing in a matter of days. The bag she had taken seemed to become heavier on her back with each step.

Worst of all, however, is that same feeling which had greeted her at the spring's entrance. That feeling of dread hadn't yet left, but rather grown more the farther into the spring she travelled. It was a primal sort of emotion, as if her entire world was in danger of falling down and crushing her at any given moment. This fear even stood to rival the horror she felt when she thought about losing Cyrus.

As she went farther down the path, it occurred to her that the awful emotion that was apparently caused by the spring seemed to have merged with her fear of losing Cyrus. It had felt like an enormous cloud of existential dread had surrounded her when she walked into the spring. Now that the cloud had been fed with her deepest fear, it had grown to the point that it threatened to envelop her at any given moment.

As the path started to come to an end, Mars could now see the sheer cliff towering over her location. Right, all she had to do was send out Excadrill and ascend the rocky wall, no different from what she had already done countless times in Sinnoh and while mountain-climbing in Unova. It was as simple as that.

For some reason, however, Mars found herself rooted to the spot. Her hand, which had darted to her belt and Excadrill's Pokéball, was now trembling, frozen in midair. She was trapped, bound to the spot by sheer horror, far worse than it had been in years.

Actually, the last time she could remember feeling like that was four years ago. She suddenly recalled standing on Spear Pillar, watching in horror as an enormous shadow slowly began to spread over the ground. Mars could remember the horrible, piercing red eyes, staring out from the shadowed form.

Cyrus, who had been facing the abomination and standing mere feet from the shadowy presence, had to take a few steps backwards to avoid the encroaching pieces of void, which were spreading wider with every fraction of a second, almost as if they were somehow infecting the ground and air itself. Mars's boss called out to the horror, asserting that he would not be deterred by its presence.

Then, without warning, it had let out a horrible, shrill screech, one that seemed to shake the entirety of Spear Pillar. For one horrifying moment, it was as if the very earth underneath, the air around her, and Mars herself were in danger of shattering into tiny pieces. Still, it wasn't the screech that hit her so hard as what happened next.

No sooner had the shadow creature let out its cry than it had caused Mars to flinch, making her close her eyes for one crucial second. When she had opened them, the spot Cyrus had just been standing in was completely empty. He was nowhere to be seen, replaced by nothing but a gaping void.

It took her entire being to force herself to react, even though the reaction was no more than shakily calling out to the one person she had cared about most. It was no use. The creature had taken him.

He was gone.

All that he had done for her, everything that he stood for, every lesson that he had taught her... it was all for naught. He had come to her rescue in her darkest hour, and she had done nothing during his. She had failed him.

The next thing she could remember is waking up back at Galactic's Veilstone HQ. She quietly watched people rush in and out of the room, panicked by the fact that their team had no leader. Mars, however, had been cut much deeper. She had lost not only her boss, but the driving force behind her life. The only person who could make her believe that she mattered, that she belonged. Without Cyrus, she had no purpose, nowhere to go, and nobody to save her. He was her purpose.

Now, here she was. Completely alone in the world with nobody to guide her, just like before she and Cyrus had met. There was no hope now that Cyrus was in the Distortion World, with Mars left behind to...

Wait.

The Distortion World! That was where she needed to be. She had been on a quest to rescue Cyrus from the clutches of that awful Giratina, and she couldn't afford to give up now. She may have failed him before, but now she was being given a second chance. Giving up now would just be squandering it.

Mars opened her eyes to find herself at the bottom of a large cliff. She was lying on the ground, her backpack still fastened. Pushing herself to her feet with some effort, the young woman tried to recall where she was.

The cliff looked awfully familiar, so she had to be somewhere she had been before. The journey to find Cyrus, that was what had led her up to this point. She had broken Charon out of prison for information on how to get to the Distortion World. He had told her to go through Sendoff Spring in order to find Turnback Cave...

Yes! That was where she was now. She had entered Sendoff Spring a few hours ago, and had found herself at the cliff that she was now looking up at. It was all starting to make sense now.

No sooner had she finally recognized her surroundings than a particularly strong gust of wind hit her. It nearly knocked her off of her feet, but it did also serve to snap her back to reality.

Right, the next step was to ascend the cliff. This time, Excadrill was successfully sent out from her Pokéball. Once Mars had a firm grip on the Pokémon's back, she was ready to attempt to scale the enormous wall.

"Excadrill, take me up that cliff."

With a nod, the Pokémon began its way up the cliff, piercing the loose rock with her metal claws. Large chunks of stone fell below them, tumbling down and breaking once they hit the grassy land below. If they were to slip off of the wall...

Mars clutched Excadrill's back as tightly as she could, took a deep breath, and started looking ahead instead of back down. The path was in front of her, there was no point in worrying about what lay below.

After what seemed like far too long, it appeared that Mars and her Pokémon had finally gotten to the top and reached the spring. The red-haired woman let go of her Pokémon and slipped down onto the grassy meadow at the top of the cliff.

"We made it," Mars finally said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Charon must have been kidding about the flowers, as all Mars could see was a large field of somewhat sparse, dead vegetation. But then again, it was nearly winter now, so maybe the field was a sight to behold earlier in the year. Or would that be giving Charon's word too much credit?

Come to think of it, maybe the current lack of plant life would end up being a good thing, since Mars did recall Cyrus having some pretty bad allergies to pollen during the spring. The cold, however, would likely pose a problem. Mars had packed the thickest blankets she could fit into the backpack, but even that might not be warm enough.

Distracting thoughts aside, Mars needed to find that bridge Charon mentioned. That should take her to Turnback Cave.

"Thank you, Excadrill," Mars stated before returning the Subterrane Pokémon back into her capsule. Charon had mentioned there being wild Pokémon, but Mars was usually fast enough with a Pokéball.

After some walking, Mars spotted what looked like a bridge over a large ravine. Mars couldn't see the end of the bridge or the entrance to Turnback Cave down there, just a whole lot of water. Hopefully this was the right bridge.

Upon closer inspection, the idea of crossing the bridge became a little iffy. The pieces holding it together weren't all there, and the wood was splintered and even cracked in places. Frankly, it seemed a wonder that the bridge was still there. Still, it was probably the only path she could take to find Cyrus, so backing out was not going to happen.

The bridge did creak a bit when Mars put a foot on it, but seemed to support her weight well enough. After a moment of indecision, she built up the confidence to fully step onto it. Even a few steps later, she couldn't even feel it wobble.

How peculiar, that the bridge was so sturdy despite its appearance, as well as all of the years it must have stood here. Well, surely it didn't get much use, but the fact that Mars was able to walk on it was still surprising. Come to think of it, who would even build a bridge here? After all, the spring wasn't supposed to be for human entry.

As she progressed farther along the bridge, a sort of haze started to rise from the water below. Mars decided to ignore it and continue, it was just fog, right? Still, it gave her a rather uneasy feeling as it rose higher. It was the same sense of foreboding that she had felt earlier on, before she had climbed the cliff.

That wasn't going to hold her down this time, though. Mars wasn't getting fooled twice. If this was some sort of trial that she had to pass to find Cyrus, let it try her. Nothing would come between her and her goal- not now, not ever.

It was with that same confidence that she now marched forward with. She would find Turnback cave at the end of the bridge, and a little bit of evaporated water wasn't going to stop her.

Something did, however, stop her. It wasn't the bridge breaking under her feet, nor the uneasy feeling coming from the fog. As a matter of fact, she didn't even notice that the bridge ended abruptly until it was almost too late. It didn't end in the entrance to Turnback Cave, either. It just... stopped.

How was she supposed to find Cyrus now? Even if her Golbat could have carried her weight, the fog was now so thick that the two of them would surely get lost. If only she had a way of getting rid of the fog, then she could at least see enough to tell how close she was to Turnback Cave.

...hang on. Couldn't Golbat just drive away the fog by flapping her wings? There was an idea. She'd still have some difficulty finding her way to Turnback Cave, but at least she would be able to see.

"Golbat, help me clear this fog by flapping your wings!"

The Pokémon obeyed, trying her best to drive away the fog. However, unlike every other situation that Mars had tried this in, the haze was not blown away. Maybe if the bat tried harder?

No use. No matter how much Golbat beat her wings, the fog was still there. Even worse, it seemed to be getting even thicker.

"Well, this was a dead end. Thank you, Golbat." The bat disappeared in a flash of light and was promptly returned to its spot next to Purugly and Bronzong.

Well then. The bridge leading towards the cave entrance had been broken off. Add that to the fact that Mars had no idea where the cave entrance actually was, and she was stuck. Even if she did have a flying-type capable of carrying her, the fog made it impossible to see.

Speaking of the awful haze, the stuff was now so opaque that the former commander had to sit down on the bridge to avoid accidentally stepping off of the edge. How was she even supposed to find her way back, let alone get to the cave if she couldn't see anything?

Those same feelings of doubt and hopelessness were coming back, along with that horrible sense of dread. As much as she tried to fight it, the same ideas kept coming back.

 _It's over. You have failed your leader. You're not good enough. There is no room for you in his New World. You would simply get in the way._

Hang on, what? Cyrus had already told Mars that she would be allowed to go with him. There was no way he'd just ditch her, not after everything they'd been through together.

 _He lied._

No, that couldn't be. Despite his cold, distant behavior, Cyrus cared about her! He was that way to everybody. He had even made her a commander, right underneath Cyrus himself! That proved it!

 _He promoted you because he had use for you. You were loyal to a fault, and would do anything to protect him. You were nothing more than a tool of war, a means to an end. He planned to use you for what you were worth, then get rid of you like the disposable trash you are._

Oh yeah? Those assertions have no evidence backing them up. Just paranoid nonsense.

 _He hated emotions, and you are emotional as people come. To him, you were everything wrong with the world. He just used you because you were a temporary convenience._

If he didn't like her, then why did he bring her to that amusement park? Or give her a birthday gift that one time? He had trusted her, and she wasn't about to break that trust now.

 _He needed to keep up your morale, so he did the bare minimum to make sure you stayed loyal. Trust? He trusted nobody, least of all you._

But- Mars was his most loyal! Of all the commanders, she alone remained faithful enough to find him. That had to count for something, right?

 _Ha. Despite your loyalty, he promoted Saturn higher than you, even leaving his top commander the team. What did he leave you?_

But- he- deep down-

 _Nothing, that's what. Nothing whatsoever. That's how much regard he has for you. None._

It- though- hey! He had her right behind him while he was accomplishing his life dream.

 _As a bodyguard. Who failed miserably, I may add. Give it up, go back and start a new life. You don't need that monster._

She may have failed him before, but not today. This time she would save him, no matter what the cost. He was worth it, and she was worth it to him.

 _I suppose if there truly is no persuading you that he's not worth your time, so be it._

Yes, she would... wait. Who was this "I"? Voices in people's heads, or at least the ones she was used to, didn't refer to themselves in the first person as it they were a separate being. Who was this talking to her anyway? Was this part of the trial?

 _I suppose you can continue, but know this- some ice does not melt. One can't control other people. You can't control him, and he can't you. It will do you well to keep this in mind._

So this was part of the trial. Really though, who was that talking in her mind? How was she supposed to proceed? The bridge just ended, even if the fog did end up clearing.

This time, there was no response. What now?

No sooner had Mars wondered this than the fog started clearing, but the bridge was gone. Instead, she was sitting on the cold, hard ground. Where was she now, and where the hell was the entrance to Turnback Cave?

Looking up, Mars found her question answered. Towering above her was the entrance to what appeared to be exactly the place she had been looking for.


	6. Chapter 6

The entrance leading into Turnback Cave narrowed out considerably before letting Mars into the first room, but she could get through easily enough by ducking down. The real problem was that she was finding it rather hard to see. Odd, because she had her Bronzong lighting up the path right behind her.

When the tunnel finally ended, Mars felt her way out of the tunnel, and into what seemed to be a room. It was hard to tell, though, because it was now apparent that the room was filled with… more fog. What would she need to do to get rid of the fog this time?

Maybe she should just stay in one place and wait for the trial to begin? That seemed logical.

...nothing. She waited for what felt like at least half an hour before deciding that sitting there any longer would be pointless. How then, was she supposed to get rid of the fog? If defogging it wouldn't clear it away...

...or would it? It was true that the haze from before hadn't moved to Golbat's attempt, yes. However, that fog had presented a challenge, and had disappeared once she had apparently solved it. If that didn't work, maybe there was some sort of switch in the room?

"Golbat, try clearing this fog! Maybe it'll work this time." Now released from her capsule, the Bat Pokémon repeated the effort she had made before.

As the red-haired woman waited to see if the air would clear, she grimly remembered how trying the same thing and expecting different results was a definition of insanity. It wasn't going to work, was it?

To the surprise of both the Pokémon and her trainer, however, the fog started to lift! It took a good bit of work from the Bat Pokémon, but the room did actually clear of fog! Well, there was still a bit left, but the important thing was that Mars could now see in front of her.

Now that the room was mostly visible, Mars could see that there were steps leading down in front of her, which seemed to lead to a giant rock. Upon closer examination, the rock seemed to have some text carved into it. The writing was hard to read and parts seemed to be missing, but the young woman could make out a bit of it.

...three pillars… the… before thirty…

Okay then. What the hell did that mean? Obviously something about three pillars and not reaching the number thirty? Still, that was not enough information to work on.

What now? There appeared to be openings on each wall, just large enough for Mars to walk through. She probably had to go through one of those tunnels to proceed, but there were three of them, and surely only one right answer.

Hang on. Hadn't Charon given her a sheet to look at? She hadn't read it yet, since it had been folded up a few times when she had received it and figured that she wouldn't need it until she actually got into the cave. Well, now was as good a time as any to take it out.

Where, though, had she put it? It should be somewhere in the backpack, right? A thorough search through the pockets revealed no such thing, even though she could swear she had put it in one of the side ones. She hadn't searched the main one yet, maybe it was there?

Nothing. She had taken out everything, even shaking out the blankets and bedrolls. Putting everything back as neatly as she could, Mars was starting to wonder if she had somehow left it behind or dropped it. It was too late to go back now, though.

Great. What was she supposed to do now? Just go through any tunnel entrance and hope for the best? Maybe she should check the inscription again.

Three pillars, three pillars. Was she supposed to interact with pillars? They must be in other rooms, because there were no pillars here. What about the "three"? Maybe that's the amount she had to interact with?

As for the thirty... "before thirty"? Sounds like something couldn't reach thirty. Thirty minutes? Hopefully not, Mars had been in the cave at least that long, probably more. Thirty hours? That would give her over a day, which was a lot of time. Somehow she thought that thirty hours would be too generous for a test, unless it was really that hard.

Maybe it was a test of patience?

Regardless of that, Mars decided to get started, picking a door to go through. She likely wouldn't get anywhere by just standing around. The tunnel was short enough, and in less than a minute it opened up into the next room.

The second room was similar to the first, except for two noticeable differences. For one, there was no stone monument in the middle of the room. Even more apparent were the small boulders scattered throughout the chamber.

Mars had no idea what the boulders meant, but they appeared to be arranged in a particular fashion. However, she could make heads nor tails of the patterns, either. Was it actually even supposed to mean something specific, or were the rocks there as obstacles?

Regardless of what the rocks were supposed to mean, the red-haired woman could find no sign of a pillar. Maybe she had gone the wrong way? There was only one thing to do now- keep going. If this test was timed, she couldn't get distracted by some oddly-placed rocks.

The next room was almost the same as the last one, except the rocks were placed in a different order. Still unable to come up with any speculation about what they meant, Mars continued.

It wasn't until the fifth room (the sixth if you counted the first one) that Mars found anything worth noting. Right smack in the middle of that room was a stone pillar. Could this be what Mars had been looking for?

Standing in front of it did not seem to be activating anything. Either she had already done what she needed to do, or she needed to interact with it. Deciding that she might as well try to make physical contact in case the latter was true, she reached out and put her hand up against the stone.

Immediately, something told Mars that she had just done the right thing. The pillar didn't glow or anything, nor did she, but somehow she just knew that if she found the other two pillars, she would find her way to Cyrus.

Just as she was about to turn and pick another path, however, something caught the corner of her vision. Spinning around, however, the young woman could see nothing other than her Bronzong behind her. Hmm, odd.

A few steps later, and the same sort of odd blur caught her eye once again. This time, the strange occurrence was followed by a cry from her Pokémon! Turning around, Mars could see that Bronzong had been hurt. Not a whole lot, but enough for the Bronze Bell Pokémon to cry in pain.

"Stay right there and keep lighting the cave, Bronzong, I'll have Purugly take care of this one!"

The Tiger Cat Pokémon appeared from her thrown Pokéball, landing on the floor with a bit of noise. Purugly turned her head to look around, and unlike her trainer, locked her vision on the pesky ghost. Then the cat leapt through the air with her claws outstretched, and Shadow Clawed something to Mars's right.

The red-haired woman could briefly see the defeated Gastly before it dematerialized into a cloud of purple haze, which then faded away.

"Maybe you should stay out of your ball, Purugly. That way we'll be be prepared for any other wild Pokémon attacks." The cat nodded and followed along with Mars and Bronzong.

There wasn't too much activity for the next eight rooms, not even a wild Pokémon. However, Mars had started to notice something strange, but wasn't sure if it was real or just her mind playing tricks on her. It seemed as if the rooms were becoming... well, strange. Sometimes, the red haired woman's vision seemed to be a little off, like the whole room was on a slope.

Also, it seemed that some of the rooms were different sizes, and sometimes walking through them took longer than others. Still, the rooms all looked the same size. Something weird was going on, and it seemed that Purugly and Bronzong could sense it, too.

It wasn't until the thirteenth room that Mars found another pillar. This one, unlike the first, seemed to be a tiny bit, well, distorted. It was hard to notice, but the pillar seemed to be uneven in certain places. It was really weird.

Despite her misgivings, the young red-haired woman put her palm up to the stone. She felt again as if she had done the correct action.

No sooner had she pulled her hand away from the pillar, as Purugly and Bronzong appeared to sense something nearby. Immediately, Purugly leaped up and swiped at something in the air. This time Mars briefly glimpsed a Duskull before it moved.

However, this time the opposing Pokémon was not taken out. Makes sense, the redhead thought to herself. After all, Duskull has higher defense than Gastly. Still, the Requiem Pokémon was a good deal slower than Gastly usually was, and certainly didn't hit as hard. Mars congratulated herself on remembering the studying she had done in Unova.

However, there seemed to be one move in Duskull's arsenal that she had forgotten about. Purugly was getting ready to get another hit on the small ghost-type when a ray of light shone from the Duskull, hitting the Tiger Cat Pokémon in the face.

"Confuse ray! Damn, I should have seen that coming. Keep at it Purugly, I'm sure you can attack through the confusion." The cat Pokémon shook her head, trying to shake off the status condition. Once Purugly had her sights set on the ghost-type, the Pokémon leapt forward with another Shadow Claw.

WHAM! The feline Pokémon missed the Requiem Pokémon entirely and barreled headfirst into the stone pillar. It seemed that between the confusion and the distorted nature of the room, Purugly just couldn't land a hit. To make matters worse, the collision with the stone column appeared to have not only injured the Tiger Cat Pokémon, but increased her confusion to the point she could barely stand.

"No, no. That won't do." Mars shook her head and took Purugly's Pokéball of of her belt. "Good job, Purugly. I think this is a good time for... Gengar!"

The red-haired woman took another Pokéball off of her belt, and released what definitely appeared to be a Gengar. The Gas Pokémon got ready to attack, but in the time it had taken to switch Pokémon, the Duskull had readied an attack.

It appeared that the Requiem Pokémon was also well-versed in ghost Pokémon stats, since it quickly disappeared into its attack, Shadow Sneak. Well, either that or it was simply going for an attack with a type advantage.

In an instant, Duskull reappeared in front of the Gas Pokémon for a super-effective hit... which didn't actually do as much as one would expect. Gengar staggered back slightly and then evaporated in a cloud of smoke, similar to how the Gastly did.

Wait, that didn't make sense. If Gengar wasn't defeated, then why did it disappear without a trace? Mars sure hadn't returned it, but rather was standing in place, smiling. The Duskull looked confused for a moment, but only that.

Now standing where the Gengar had been was a different Pokémon- a Zoroark! Taking advantage of the Requiem Pokémon's surprise, Redshift opened his mouth slightly and set forth a sudden stream of flames, hitting the Duskull square in the face with Flamethrower. Both direct hits were too much for the small ghost-type, finally knocking it out.

"Great job, Redshift!" Mars called out. "I'll have you follow for now instead of Purugly, since she needs some rest."

The party of three continued forward without too much success. Well, it was really more like no success, but Mars was trying to stay positive. The room count reached fifteen, then twenty, then twenty-five. Dimensions continued to distort, and it became harder and harder to progress. Sometimes the party would find themselves where they had been seconds, or even minutes ago, and other times the room would appear to flip upside-down entirely.

It wasn't until the twenty-seventh room that Mars had a realization. Thinking back to the "before thirty" part of the engraving, it probably hadn't been thirty hours that she had after all. Seeing as each consecutive room grew harder to navigate due to what appeared to be spacetime anomalies, maybe the limit was actually thirty rooms? What would happen when the thirtieth room was reached?

Maybe the dimensional distortions would get so bad that space and time itself would rip apart, Mars along with it. Or maybe she would be returned to the entrance, but without any memories, like Charon had talked about. There was also probably the chance of freezing in time, eternally in limbo between the Distortion World and the normal one. She also considered the possibility of falling forever into a bottomless void.

Well, it looked like if the "before thirty" meant rooms, she had two more rooms before reaching the thirtieth. Then… well, who knew what would happen. Mars steeled herself and went past the rocks and into the twenty-eighth room. Please, please, be a pillar in this one.

Light filled the room as Bronzong entered to reveal... nothing. It was another room that was completely empty save for some scattered boulders. The distortions were almost unmanageable by now. One room left, all that had happened so far was banked on this.

Except it was just too much pressure for Mars to handle. She sank to her knees, unable to proceed. It all came down to this. In order to stop herself from chewing her nails (a bad habit she had), she stuck her hands in her coat pockets. Breaking her nails was the least of her problems, but...

Wait a second. There was something small in one of the pockets. She could swear that she checked that pocket at least three times. Could it be? Mars pulled out the small piece of paper and unfolded it.

Bingo. Now she could look at it and maybe figure out how the hell to find the right room, or at least increase her chances.

"Eep!" Suddenly, Mars felt a hand on her back. Another ghost-type? She wheeled around to find... Redshift, without any illusion, putting a hand on her back as a comforting gesture.

"I almost dropped the paper when you- I mean thank you for the support, Reds. It's fine, I still have the paper in my hand, see?" Mars showed the Illusion Fox Pokémon the unfolded slip, the Pokémon had been looking at the red-haired woman with an apologetic expression.

"Let's look at what this says, shall we?" The former commander moved closer to Bronzong's light and examined what was recorded on the paper.

"There's a picture of what looks like one of the pillars. It says that I have to pass three of them before I go through thirty rooms, and that there appears to be no recognizable pattern dictating which room to take." Mars stared down at the slip, a look of utter defeat crossing her face.

"So it's a crapshoot. The paper couldn't tell me something helpful, could it?" The red-haired woman sighed, about to toss the paper away. Before she did that however, she took one last look at the sheet, in case she had missed something.

As it turned out, she had. There was some small text written near the very bottom of the page that she hadn't seen last time she had looked, probably due to the spacial distortions and relatively low light. She stepped directly up to Bronzong and started reading aloud.

"Warning: If you reach room thirty without finding three pillars first, the distortions will kill you or trap you forever. You can leave by digging your way out as far as the twenty-eighth room. You'll lose most of your memories even if you make it out alive, but you'll probably live."

Well, that wasn't too much help, either. All that the sheet had told her was that she could quit now and possibly live, or she could keep going and walk into near-certain death. None of the last seventeen rooms had pillars in them, and the next was likely no different. Maybe leaving now and saving herself would be better.

If she left now, however, not only would she never rescue Cyrus, but she might even forget him entirely! Even if she did remember him by some chance, she surely wouldn't be able to attempt this trial again. Cyrus would be sealed away forever, and she would have failed him.

Still, what if that was for the better? What if Cyrus really didn't care about her after all? If she forgot him, it would be easier to start a new life, like so many had told her to do.

No, she couldn't think like that. She wouldn't allow it. Cyrus needed her, and she wasn't about to run off on him. She wouldn't just save herself and abandon him, not after all this. If she was going down, she would do so trying to save him. Even if failing the test meant eternal limbo, that would still be better than intentionally leaving Cyrus to the same fate. She was going ahead to the next room, and possibility be damned.

Once the tunnel ended in the twenty-ninth room, it was impossible to see exactly what lay in the middle of the chamber through the distortions. She set foot forward, pulse racing.

As she made her way to the center of the room, she found herself thinking the same thoughts over and over again. Sure, she had a lot on her mind, but it was a little too strange how the thoughts were repeating, almost like deja vu.

After what felt like far too long walking in what appeared to be circles, Mars finally reached the center of the room. Looking up, what she saw made her gasp, and nearly fall over into Redshift.

There was a pillar there!

Mars once again placed her palm against the column.

The third pillar had been found, and now it was time to make her way to what should be the way into the Distortion World. She didn't see any wild Pokémon this time, so the young woman marched ahead, needing some help from her own Pokémon to avoid tripping due to the spacial distortions.

Finally, after what seemed like far too much time, she reached the door to the final room. It was time. There was no time to think of failure now. Confidently, she made her way through the tunnel, expecting to find whatever would lead her to the Distortion World in the next room.

What she didn't expect was for the tunnel to disappear under her feet, leaving nothing but a swirling blue vortex below. Was the trial improperly solved? She didn't have too much time to think about it as she fell, not sure which way she was falling- down? Up? Sideways?

An instant later, everything went dark.


	7. Chapter 7

Mars awoke to find herself in what appeared to be a somewhat strange location with her Pokémon back in their Pokéballs. There were floating rocks everywhere, each with platforms on them. The odd thing about the platforms is that they were all facing different directions, as if gravity couldn't make up its mind.

As odd as it was, Mars had actually expected the Distortion World to be even more bizarre. That is, if this really was the Distortion World and not something else. With that said, the way gravity seemed to work here was still very strange.

Standing up, the red-haired woman looked around for some sort of path to take. The place was enormous, or at least looked that way. How was she supposed to find Cyrus in here? She didn't even know how to get from one platform to the other, let alone comb the entire area for one man.

Still, she wasn't about to give up. There had to be some way to get to the other pieces of terrain, she just needed to figure out how. If she had to, she would look on and under every single floating rock.

Walking around on the platform, Mars found what appeared to be a blue rock wall sitting in her way. She approached the wall, but before she could consider how she would climb it, the wall just vanished. Maybe it had turned invisible?

Reaching out to touch the spot where the barrier had disappeared, however, revealed that there was now nothing stopping her from progressing past where the wall had been. She walked forward cautiously, but got to the other end of the platform without anything stopping her. However, once she had looked back, the wall was once again there. Strange indeed.

Now there was a new problem- how would she get to the other platforms? She could see one to her side, but it was facing towards her. If she tried to jump to and stand on it, she would just fall downwards into the abyss below, right?

Her question was soon answered. When she approached the edge of the platform she was currently standing on, she started sliding off of it. Alarmed, Mars scrambled to sit down, hoping that would make it more difficult to fall off. This, however, was no use, as a split second later, she got a strange sort of weightless feeling.

The feeling only lasted a fraction of a second before she started to fall downwards, landing on the ground below. It wasn't far of a fall, but Mars was nonetheless startled.

Once again getting to her feet, the red-haired woman found herself on a completely different platform than she had been standing on before. Furthermore, a turn to her right revealed that the platform she had appeared to be standing on before was now on its side in the air next to her.

Had gravity just decided to switch directions? It appeared so. Well, that would explain why the other floating platforms around her were facing all different ways. Was this how she was supposed to get around? It also occurred to her that she had no idea how to actually leave the place.

That would be worked out with time, she told herself. For now, she needed to find Cyrus. Even if it meant dealing with strange and potentially lethal gravity anomalies.

As Mars forged ahead, the place seemed to get progressively stranger. Giant, towering objects like dead flowers, water that flowed upwards and upside-down, and of course obstacles that seemed to just disappear when she walked up to them, while others would suddenly appear and block her way.

After what felt like far too long navigating the place, Mars came upon what looked like a human -shaped object on a far-off platform. Could it be Cyrus? It was hard to tell from the distance she was at, but who else lived in the Distortion World but Giratina?

Once the red-haired woman had gotten closer, there was no mistaking Cyrus's blue hair and grey coat. She rushed towards the platform he was on as quickly as she could. He was right there, he was-

Just lying there face down. What if-

Suddenly, the realization hit her that she had gone off of a different platform to get to Cyrus than intended. Thankfully, she still managed to land on the right platform, just a little harder than she otherwise would have.

No matter, she had made it to Cyrus and he could be... she would check for injuries on herself later. This couldn't wait.

"Master Cyrus! I'm here!" When the man gave no reply, the former commander dropped to her knees in front of her fallen leader, gently flipping him onto his back. She didn't come all this way to find him dead- she couldn't have!

"Cyrus, please." Putting a hand on the side of his neck, Mars tried to detect a pulse. His skin felt cold to the touch, and his face was far paler than she had remembered. Could she be too late?

"Cyrus, no!" He was alive, he had to be. Cyrus wouldn't leave her like this. She wouldn't allow it.

Wait. Was that a pulse? Or was she simply feeling her own pulse as her heart raced? No, it was a lot slower than that. It was his! He was alive!

"We're going to get out of here, Cyrus. You- you're breathing, right?" It was hard to see if his chest was moving under his loose clothing, so she pressed her ear against it.

It was faint, but Mars could swear she could hear his lungs working under that worn shirt he had on. He was alive, and that was what mattered.

"I'll carry you out, and we'll go back to Veilstone." Holding him in her arms would be no small feat considering the heavy backpack she had on, but that wasn't about to stop her. To make things easier, he seemed to have lost a considerable amount of weight in the past four years. Either that or he had been a lot lighter than he had looked.

As soon as she had gotten her arms under his back and lifted herself into a standing position, however, she heard something that stopped her dead in her tracks.

It was a shrill cry, the same one she had heard that fateful day on Spear Pillar. The same sound that had proceeded Cyrus being taken away from her. Now it was going to happen all over again.

She immediately dropped to her knees, frozen in place again. She could only watch helplessly as Cyrus slid from her shaking arms and back onto the rocky ground.

The cry sounded again, this time sounding as close as it had been on Spear Pillar, shaking her to her core. She was failing him again. Once again, he was being pulled away from her, and she wasn't doing a thing to stop it. She had to act, had to…

Then came the chilling rush of the shadow creature speeding towards her. It was truly over this time, Giratina would kill them both.

The collision she expected however, never happened. The shadow moving at her seemed to stop centimeters from her face. What was going on? It seemed that the monster had decided to separate them again instead of just letting the two of them die together. How cruel.

"Mars."

Somebody was saying her name. That voice, she had heard it before.

"Mars, I'm here. You don't have to be frightened."

Somebody had put a hand on her shoulder. The red-haired woman slowly turned her head to look at the source of the voice. Could it be?

She found herself looking at a face she recognized, the same one that had been haunting her dreams for the last four years. The same face that she thought she'd never see again, at least not looking down at her, eyes locked on hers.

"Master Cyrus." It was him, it was really-

No, there was something wrong. She had just seen him lying on the ground half-dead, and now he was perfectly fine? How could that be? Was this some sort of trick of the Distortion World?

"It's okay, Mars, it's really me." The hand on her shoulder tightened its grip slightly. She wanted to believe so badly, but...

"I-" She put her hand on his, maybe if she touched him she would know whether he was real or not. That was how illusions usually worked, at least as far as she could remember.

His hand was solid, but felt cold as ice. Flinching, Mars pushed his hand off of her shoulder and stood up, never taking her gaze off of the man's face. His eyes were still the same piercing shade of blue, just as she had remembered them. At the same time though, there was something different about him, somehow reflected in his eyes.

"This was what you want, isn't it? You came for me, did you not?" Was it his stay in the Distortion World that had changed the man? Maybe it really was him, and Mars was simply letting her emotions get in the way of her reason.

"Master Cyrus, I..."

The young woman swallowed, trying to hold back tears. She couldn't let him see her show weakness, not now that she finally had him in her sights. They would make it out of this world alive, they had to.

"Shhh..." The blue-haired man reached up, putting a hand on her cheek. This wasn't right, not at all. He was there, but he wasn't real, couldn't be.

"You-" Mars stepped backwards, slowly pushing the man's hand away from her face as she made distance between the two of them.

"What is wrong with you, Mars? Pull yourself together. You've finally found me. Do not be overcome by your emotions." Okay, that actually did sound like Cyrus. Could it be that Mars was being foolish, looking a gift horse in the mouth?

"Cyrus sir, I... we need to leave this place. This place isn't right. I don't like what it's doing to me, and I certainly don't like what it's done to you." However, Mars's former leader just shook his head, smiling in an unnerving way. It was an expression that she had never seen cross his face, at least as far as she could remember.

"No, Mars. We don't need to leave. We can stay here together, forever. Don't you want that?" The young red-haired woman continued to stare, transfixed on the man's face as her own expression turned to one of sheer horror.

This wasn't right. Cyrus wouldn't want to stay in that awful place any longer, and certainly not just to be with her.

As they stood there with eyes locked on each other's, Mars could swear she saw something flicker in the blue-haired man's eyes, something that surely hadn't been there before. It was something she could only describe as a brief flash of color, the color red. Somehow she knew that she wasn't just seeing the reflection of her own irises. This was a different shade of red, but still one she recognized. It was the same red color she had seen before, identical to the glow of another set of eyes which had been haunting her dreams for the last four years.

It was the intense color of the eyes that had stared out from the formless shadow that had appeared that day on the very top of Mount Coronet. The same soulless gaze that had taken what she valued most from her. Now it was back, to steal him from her again.

"I- I won't let you take him again! I'm bringing him back with me, and you can't stop me this time."

At these words, "Cyrus" frowned.

"What makes you doubt me? How could I be anybody else, let alone a ghost like Giratina? I'm not an illusion, I've already proven that to you."

Mars, however, wasn't convinced. Maybe illusions could be solid in the Distortion World. Or... wait. If this wasn't Cyrus, then where was the real one? This one looked like her leader, but was clearly not acting as himself, almost as if he were somehow possessed...

Wait, that was it! That report Mars had read back in Galactic's old Eterna base had said that all ghost-types were capable of possessing humans, including Giratina!

"Get out of him this instant, Giratina! I'm not going to let you kill him." Mars's hand flew down to her Pokéball belt. Maybe a super-effective move like Night Daze would be able to flush the creature out.

"You're clever," the possessed former leader of Galactic remarked with another unsettling smile.

"But far too rash. If you attack us, you'll only be hurting your dear leader. With his body as frail as it is now, you would surely kill him, which is obviously not what you came here to do. As for me, well, being attacked by another Pokémon means little to nothing to me. Even a powerful dark, ghost, dragon, or ice-type blow could be shrugged off."

Giratina might be the last obstacle in the way of getting Cyrus back, and as much as Mars wanted to force the thing out, the creature had a point. Mars's hand slowly moved away from her belt, a look of defeat crossing her face.

"Fine, then. What do you really want from me?"

"What I want," the possessed man stated, placing a hand on his chest. "...is a promise."

A promise? The creature wanted Mars to commit to an action? Maybe Giratina wanted her to stay in Cyrus's place? That would be horrible, but Mars wouldn't put it past the legendary dragon ghost.

"I'm listening." The red-haired woman was trying her best to keep her posture upright and to not break eye contact. It wasn't easy when her legs felt as if they were going to collapse under her from stress and panic. She had to stay strong for Cyrus.

"As you probably know, I brought this man here to stop him from ripping the spacetime continuum apart, which would put the entire fate of our world in jeopardy. Possibly more than that even, I do not know how much damage he would have accomplished before Dialga and Palkia ran out of energy or the chain broke. Threatening the very stability of our world's foundation, and for what? Some petty half-brained scheme to somehow gain power that no man was meant to have, just to satisfy his own foolish delusions of grandeur, that's what."

Giratina made Cyrus shake his head before continuing. It was odd to see Cyrus speaking against his own plans, even while possessed. Mars let the Pokémon who had taken over her leader's body continue speaking through him.

"Of course, such an act would not be survivable by a mere human being. The force of creation would rip him apart, along with everybody else standing on that mountain. From there, the cataclysm would spread, not content until there was nothing left in this world but empty space. Eventually, Palkia and Dialga themselves would break, assuming that the red chain he made was well-enough built. Though it certainly wasn't, considering how easily I destroyed it."

"What do you want of me already?" Mars demanded, trying her best to keep the fear she was feeling out of her voice.

"Yes, I suppose I should get to the point, as I'm not sure how long this body can hold me before dying completely. The point is, I risked myself by leaving this place just long enough to take the idiot down and bring him here. I will not allow this foolish excuse for a man to repeat his mistake. I will take the precautions necessary to send him out without the chance of him doing so, but I will need your cooperation."

"So you want me to stop him from trying to make a new world again?" The sooner this was over, the better. Mars wasn't sure how long she could hold up, and Cyrus's body and mind were even more of a concern. Why did Giratina have to drag the conversation on with unnecessary words? Did it have something to do with the creature possessing Cyrus? She had loved her leader's long-winded speeches, but now was not the time.

"In so many words, yes. I want you to watch him and ensure that he will not repeat his mistakes. If you break this promise, I will have to come out of here again and kill this man, then drag you back here for a permanent stay. With that said, you did pass all of my controlled trials. I will give you back your desired human and bid you farewell. Human language, or at least the way this man expresses it, tires me greatly."

Mars didn't even have time to reply before the creature left its temporary host, pulling itself from the man like a particularly large, three-dimensional shadow. There was a sudden rush of what felt like cold, wet air, and the shadow was gone, leaving Galactic's leader as well as what appeared to be a small portal behind.

Now to leave this awful place. The redhead caught Cyrus in her arms as the now unconscious man fell forward, then carefully placed him on the ground while she grabbed her backpack and put it on again. Once this was done, Mars once again picked up the blue-haired man and carried him through the portal before collapsing herself.


	8. Chapter 8

Ugh. What had happened, and why did everything feel so sore? The red-haired woman opened her eyes to find herself in what appeared to be complete darkness.

Wait, why was there no light? Starting to panic, she tried to pull herself off of her side and into a sitting position. However, there was something on her back that was weighing her down, making it difficult to push herself up.

Okay, think. What had proceeded this? Thinking hard, the last thing Mars could recall was being hurdled through some sort of weird portal, in which she had landed on what felt like a cold stone floor, likely the same one she could feel under her now.

She had to send out her Bronzong, then the Pokémon could light things up and Mars could figure out where she was now. However, there seemed to be a problem with that. Not only was she unable to sit up, she couldn't move her arms much at all. There was something lying on top of them, but it was hard to tell what it was in the complete darkness. Whatever it was, the thing felt like it was moving, but only slightly.

After some failed attempts, Mars finally managed to dislodge one of her arms from under whatever was holding them down. With that done, she reached down to her Pokéball belt and picked the Bronze Bell Pokémon off of it. It took a few seconds, but she managed to find the button to press in order to send her Pokémon out.

"Bronzong, help me light this place up." The Pokémon obeyed, illuminating the space around it. This revealed that the room was filled with a thick fog. Fog... why did that sound so familiar?

Looking in front of her, the red-haired woman could see the figure of a man through the haze. That man…

"Cyrus!" Suddenly, everything came rushing back. Finding Cyrus, Giratina, the Distortion World, the trials in Sendoff Spring and Turnback Cave...

That was it, she must be in Turnback Cave now. The fog... it was the same fog from before. It not only made it hard to see, but hard to think, too. She needed to clear it away. She reached for her Golbat, who was usually kept next to her Bronzong, and released the Pokémon inside.

"Golbat..." Before the young woman could even finish making the command, Golbat gave her a quick nod and started to clear the room of fog.

Now that the chamber had been cleared, Mars could tell that she was indeed in Turnback Cave. She used her free arm to gingerly lift Cyrus off of her other one. Once this was achieved, the redhead slipped her arms from out of her backpack straps.

Now that the red-haired woman could crawl out from under her backpack, it was time to tend to her main concern- Cyrus. She made her way over to the blue-haired man, who was lying very still where she had left him.

He was still out cold, but alive. His skin felt warmer to the touch than it had in the Distortion World, or at least the skin on his neck. On the other hand, his hands still felt cold as ice. But then again, Mars's hands weren't very warm either, considering that it was freezing in the cave. The surrounding air had to be a good few degrees colder than it had been when she had first entered... a few hours ago, was it?

How long had it taken to go through the cave and into the Distortion World? It couldn't have been more than a few hours, right? The sun had been setting when she had entered Turnback Cave, so it should be around early morning, right?

With the condition Cyrus was in, Mars should probably call Charon to bring the van over. Her phone, which hadn't worked at all in the Distortion World, could at least show a picture on the screen now. However, it wasn't getting any reception, so it seemed that Mars might have to leave the cave, or possibly the springs to get ahold of Charon.

Deciding to move sooner rather than later, Mars's Pokémon carried her and Cyrus out of the cave and back to the springs, as she was so exhausted that she could barely stand at the moment. Thankfully, they had ended up back in the main room from that portal they had entered in the Distortion World, so leaving the cave was rather easy.

Once outside, the cold in the air was far more noticeable. Also, it was snowing. According to the weather report Mars had read on her way to Sendoff Spring, snow hadn't been predicted for at least a few days. Then again, weather reports were wrong all the time, so it probably wasn't anything to worry about.

Even more bizarre, however, was the somewhat thick layer of snow on the ground. She must have missed a blizzard at some point while inside the cave.

Once she had shared some water and food with her Pokémon (there wasn't really anything she could do about Cyrus until he woke up), the young woman wrapped the blue-haired man in blankets. Then the party headed for the bridge to get back.

Except the bridge wasn't there. It looked like they would have to scale the rocky wall in order to get out of the spring. The red-haired woman told Excadrill to take special care in bringing up Cyrus before hopping onto the Pokémon's back herself. It took a few trips, but the wall was scaled.

Even as they headed through the upper part of the spring, Mars still couldn't get any reception. The path around the spring did lead back to where the spot she had first climbed up. It was hard to recognize at first as the bridge had disappeared entirely now, but by now she had seen so many strange things that she didn't even question it.

Once the party had reached the bottom of the hill, the young redhead decided to stop for a short while. The blue-haired man continued to worry her by not waking up, but at least he seemed to have warmed up slightly underneath the blankets.

After around ten minutes of resting, Mars couldn't wait any longer to try to get in touch with Charon, and decided to go closer to the spring's entrance. The party moved forward, and soon enough, the woman's phone began to get a signal. She raised her phone to call Charon, but something on the screen made her hesitate for a moment.

The date on the phone said "January 18th" of the next year. How was that possible? It had been mid-November less than a day ago. Mars figured that the trip through the Distortion World had horribly confused the piece of electronics, and dialed the number she was supposed to call to reach Charon.

It had to ring a good few times before the old man picked up, but it was definitely Charon on the other line.

"You called? It's been awhile, I thought you had been consumed by the void."

"But it's only been a day or so, how- actually never mind. I need you to come here, and take the car. I'll tell you more when we meet."

Mars had to be careful what she said on the line so as not to reveal who she was or who was with her.

"Understood. Expect me in a few hours. I'll have to drive slowly, the roads are icy at this time of year."

No, that wouldn't work. Cyrus needed help, and he needed it now. Still, there wasn't much that she could say to convey the message to Charon over the phone.

"Be as fast as you can."

With that, Mars ended the call. Now she'd have to wait hours to get Cyrus into the (hopefully) warm van and bring him back to the apartment. What though, would they do after that? If Cyrus didn't wake up soon, they might have to surrender him over to a hospital. Then he would be imprisoned for his crimes, and Mars would never see him again. Would that even be better than letting the man die?

Trying not to think about that, Mars had Excadrill strip bark from a dead tree for a fire. Maybe the warmth would help Cyrus wake up?

A stream of fire from Redshift lit up the tree bark, and suddenly everything felt a little warmer. Mars was thoroughly exhausted, but she couldn't just leave Cyrus unmonitored. No matter, she would just stay up a little bit longer, then once she was in the van she might be able to briefly get some sleep.

The fire was so warm, she could just drift off to sleep in a... no, she needed to stay alert! Cyrus needed her right now. The red-haired woman shook her head in an attempt to keep herself awake, then focused her attention back on Cyrus, who was looking a good deal better now.

Actually, he was looking a lot better. A small bit of color had returned to his face, and his breathing sounded less labored than it had before. He was even stirring a bit!

"Master Cyrus!" The red-haired woman's eyes lit up as she gazed down at her old boss. He was about to wake up!

The blue-haired man's eyes slowly opened, then began to focus on Mars's face. It wasn't the same look that was in his eyes when Giratina had possessed him, but something still bothered the red-haired woman. What could it be?

"It's me, Mars. I brought you out of the Distortion World and carried you here." The man looked up at his former subordinate with a sort of blank stare, then blinked. Was he not recognizing her face?

"Cyrus, don't you remember me? It's your commander, Mars! The only one who stayed loyal to you."

"Urgh..." The man groaned, then looked away from Mars, as if trying to figure out his surroundings. When trying to identify his location seemed to have failed, he turned his gaze back to Mars.

"You don't have to strain yourself, Cyrus. I'm sure who I am will come back to you soon enough." The red-haired woman smiled, despite the anxious feeling that was creeping up on her. Charon had said that people could lose their memory here, had that happened to Cyrus? What would she do if he really didn't know who she was anymore? Mars tried to push the thought out of her mind.

"I... ugh!" Cyrus's voice was very low, and it was clear that the man was in pain. What should she do now? Mars contemplated this for a few seconds, then something came to her. The red-haired woman pulled the backpack over and started rifling through it.

"Here we go, found one!" Mars took a water bottle out of the pack and opened it. Then she placed it down for the moment, and sat Cyrus up, propping his upper back with the large pack underneath.

"Alright, I'm going to need you to drink this. I'll hold it for you, since I don't think your arms are strong enough right now." Plus they were wrapped up in a few layers of blankets.

Mars picked up the water bottle in one hand, and held the back of Cyrus's head with the other. She then brought the open top of the bottle up to the man's lips. He fixed his eyes on her as if suspicious, but nevertheless let her feed him the water.

Very little of the bottle's contents actually went down the man's throat, with most of it flowing out of Cyrus's mouth and onto the blankets Mars had wrapped him in.

When the water bottle was finally empty, the former commander took out a towel and used it to dry off Cyrus's chin, then mop up the water that had spilled down his front. Once that was done, Mars put Cyrus back into a laying position.

"Is there anything else I can do for you right now?" Mars tried to think of what could potentially help at the moment.

The former Galactic boss, however, simply shook his head.

"Are you sure? I've got some medication that I took along, I doubt it would stop the pain completely, but it might help. Oh, and food, if you're feeling up to it."

It was hard to see the pain on the man's face through the limited light of the fire now that the sun had set, but looking closely, Mars could certainly see it there. He was obviously trying to hide it as well, but it appeared to be far too intense to do so effectively. She felt horribly bad for him, but if he wasn't going to accept help she wasn't about to force-feed him the pills.

"I have some bread that I packed here, it should hopefully be simple enough for your stomach to handle." The red-haired woman pulled out a bag with a slice of white bread and held it in front of Cyrus. The man glanced at it for a few seconds before turning his head away.

"Yeah, maybe the water is enough for your system right now. You didn't need to eat or drink in the Distortion World, did you?"

The blue-haired man looked over to Mars with an attempt at his usual stern expression, but she thought she could detect confusion in his face along with the twitches of pain. Maybe he didn't even remember his stay in the Distortion World, at least for the moment.

Come to think of it, what effects did the Distortion World have on the man's mind and body? Mars knew a bit about medicine, but not enough to guess exactly what that extradimensional trip had done to him. Or her for that matter, but Cyrus was the important one. Plus she hadn't been there for very long, or gotten possessed by Giratina.

It seemed that Mars would just have to wait and see what symptoms the man displayed and work from there.

"Cyrus sir," the red-haired former commander began, adjusting the blankets to the side of the blue-haired man's face so that less heat would be lost.

"I just want you to know that I'm here for you. Tell me whatever you need to be comfortable, and I'll get it for you. If you ever need to talk, I'll be here to listen. I'll protect you until the very end." Even if that meant protecting Cyrus from himself, but Mars didn't add that bit in.

The man responded by once again wordlessly staring up at Mars, but this time his expression was hard to read. The red-haired former commander wanted so badly to wrap her arms around him and tell him that things were going to be okay, or at least put a hand on his shoulder.

However, she knew he wouldn't take it well, he had never let her do anything of that sort. Even though their relationship was somewhat different now, Cyrus likely still would prefer her to keep contact minimal.

"It will work out somehow, Cyrus sir, I promise that. I'll make it work, I refuse to let you get lost again." Glancing back at Cyrus, it appeared that the man had once again drifted out of conscience.

Now it was up to Mars to keep watch. She considered sending out one of her Pokémon to help, but decided against it. She didn't want to push her tired team any more than she had to. If a wild Pokémon was to appear for a fight, her hand would be forced, but so far the scuttling noises in the forest had not drawn too close.

There was always the idea of sending out one of Cyrus's Pokémon to keep watch, but she doubted they would listen to her. Besides, they had been in the Distortion World as long as Cyrus had. Who knows what kind of condition they were in?

Thus Mars took it onto herself to keep tabs on the small campsite. This entailed watching Cyrus to make sure he was still breathing and protected from the cold, as well as looking out for the sight or sound of hostile wild Pokémon. The fire Excadrill and Redshift had helped make was essential. It provided the red-haired woman protection from the cold and light to see both Cyrus and her surroundings.

However, the warmth of the fire made it so tempting to fall asleep. The fact that Mars was about ready to collapse from exhaustion didn't help so much either. Still, she had to stay awake, had to. It was up to her alone to watch for danger, and Charon was still on his way...


	9. Chapter 9

[So this chapter has Mars treating injuries that Cyrus had from the Distortion World. It's not terribly graphic, but it's there.]

"Mars!"

A voice. It sounded familiar somehow.

"Mmmh." Who was bothering her at this hour?

"Wake up and help me get your friend here into the back of the van!" Oh, it was Charon, and... that's right, they needed to get Cyrus back to Veilstone.

"Right, where is the van?" Mars rubbed her eyes. Had she really fallen asleep on her watch?

"Not far. Now pick him up and follow me." The red-haired woman crawled over to Cyrus. It was then that she realized that the fire appeared to have recently burnt out, the only source of light from a flashlight Charon was holding.

The blue-haired man still appeared to be sleeping when Mars carefully picked him up. Hopefully he hadn't gotten too cold when the fire had gone out. He didn't appear to be shivering, so maybe she had wrapped him in enough blankets after all.

The redhead followed behind the old scientist as closely as possible, while trying her best not to trip over rocks or tree roots. This wasn't so easy in the dark, but Charon's flashlight at least gave her a bit of light to see the terrain with.

"Alright, here's where I parked the van." Finally, the group of three had approached what looked like a road, where Mars was led to a spot slightly off of.

"Just be thankful that your fire hadn't burned out by the time I first arrived, or I might never have found the two of you. Now go place Cyrus in the back of the van so I can drive us home." The old man unlocked the back of the van and tried to hurry Mars in.

"Hang on, I need to make sure Cyrus gets in okay, stop trying to rush me." The young woman hoisted the unconscious blue-haired man into the van sideways, then climbed in to make sure he was put in a comfortable position.

"You need to hurry up, I could swear I saw a Pokémon ranger car as I drove close to here." Pushy, pushy, pushy.

"And here you told me I was the impatient one, yeesh, old man. I'm strapping Cyrus in properly, so-"

Slam!

Charon had just closed the back of the van, locking in Cyrus, Mars, and the backpack she had brought.

"I was going to sit in the front with you, I don't trust your driving."

"Stay in the back with your precious boss, that way you can tend to him there. Besides, I don't need you as a backseat driver. I threw the flashlight in with the two of you, use that to help check on Cyrus." With that said, the old scientist turned on the ignition.

"Fine," the redhead muttered, not sure if Charon could even hear her over the roar of the engine starting up.

As the vehicle started moving, Mars decided that the old man once again had a point. Cyrus needed her next to him so that she could watch for and try to treat any symptoms the man had.

The blue-haired man's breathing did sound a bit labored, but it was hard to tell without taking off all of the blankets. A more thorough examination would have to wait until they were in the nice, heated apartment.

Now that she had a chance to think about recent events, Mars started to worry. Sure, she had successfully freed Cyrus from that awful hell, but what next? Cyrus did appear to be very ill physically, and who knew what the place had done to him mentally?

Speaking of which, what was up with the way Cyrus had looked at her right outside of Sendoff Spring? It had almost seemed as if he had no idea who she was. Could it be that everything that had happened to the man- being trapped in the Distortion World, being possessed by Giratina, and the trip through Turnback Cave and Sendoff Spring- had somehow erased some of his memories? If that was the case, had it done other kinds of brain damage, too?

What if he could no longer walk, or even speak? He hadn't seemed to be able to communicate through words back at the camp site. What if these effects were permanent? Or what if he was damaged so much that there was nothing she could do to keep him alive?

Starting to panic, Mars felt around for the flashlight. Maybe if she could study his face clearly, it would make it easier to figure out how likely he was to die at any given moment?

The young woman found the light and turned it on, then took a careful look at the blue-haired man's face. Strangely, Mars realized, he had barely any facial hair, just a tiny bit of stubble that had likely grown between exiting the Distortion World and now. The hair on top of his head didn't appear to have grown, either.

Now that she thought about it, Mars didn't remember his nails looking like they had gotten longer as well when she had seen them outside of Turnback Cave. Could this be one of the strange properties of the Distortion World? It had to be, unless the Distortion World had razors, nail clippers, and a barber.

She couldn't fall asleep again, the redhead thought, trying to stifle a yawn. Cyrus needed her to watch over him. She wasn't going to fail him again...

"We're here!" Charon yelled, opening the back of the car.

 _Morning already?_ The red-haired woman thought as a small amount of light filtered into the van. How long had she been sleeping for? Cyrus was next to her, still sleeping himself.

Once the party had entered the apartment, Charon threw the cane he had been using to the side and flopped down on the only bed.

"You're not going to help me tend to Cyrus? I'm sure he needs our attention." At Mars's words, the old man simply waved a hand.

"I trust you to take care of him well enough, and I desperately need my sleep. Just don't let him die, I want my retirement funds. I'd hate to be stuck in this hellhole for the rest of my years."

"Fine, fine. If you're going to be like that, I'll just use the couch for Cyrus." The red-haired woman glared at the old scientist as she placed her former boss on the couch and turned up the thermostat.

Maybe she should just murder Charon in his sleep, that would save her and Cyrus a lot of trouble. Unfortunately, the woman realized, she still needed the old man to help her take care of Galactic's ex-leader, so that was out of the options for now.

"Okay, Cyrus. What do we do for you first?" Mars wondered aloud, kneeling down next to the couch where her former boss lay. He was still unconscious, and had been since he had briefly awoken at the campsite. That is, unless he had come to while Mars had been sleeping in the van.

Charon had said that he was going to buy medical supplies, so maybe Mars should look for those? She couldn't see them laying out in the room, but there were some cardboard boxes sitting around that might be promising.

First thing first, however, it would be extremely difficult to treat the blue-haired man through that raggedy old coat he was wearing. Mars knew that in any other circumstance he would scold her for taking his shirt off, but this was a matter of life or death.

His clothes were dusty, torn, and even bloody in some places, but what else could you expect for the man having spent four years in that hell of a place known as the Distortion World? It seemed that not only would Mars have to get the dust off of him, she would also have to clean and dress some wounds.

Mars even had some minor cuts and bruises from trying to get around in the Distortion World, but she would deal with those later. The boss came first, and from the looks of things, he had taken far more damage.

Several damp towels from the bathroom seemed like a good start, as well as some antibacterial cream from the first aid kit Mars had taken in her backpack. Once she had removed (most) of his clothes, she got to work on disinfecting the nastier cuts that the blue-haired man had suffered.

Thankfully, there didn't seem to be much danger of him losing too much blood, as most of the gashes weren't too deep, and had all appeared to have missed striking arteries by a good bit. Besides, the injuries had all stopped bleeding by now. Mars tried not to mess with them too much in fear of causing them to open again, but there was one particular wound on his arm that caught her attention.

It looked a bit different from the other injuries, as if it had been caused by something entering his flesh rather than a simple scrape from something in the Distortion World. Upon closer investigation with a small, bright light, it looked like there was certainly something embedded there.

After some trial and error with a tweezers, the red-haired woman finally removed the foreign object. At first she thought it was a piece of glass, but the fact that the small red shard almost seemed to glow indicated that this might not be normal glass. As a matter of fact, it looked an awful lot like a substance Mars had seen before.

It was the same crystal that had been created by energy extracted from the lake trio. This was part of the Red Chain. How it had gotten buried in her former leader's arm was the question. Well, the chain had shattered when Giratina appeared, she supposed it wouldn't be too unlikely that one of the shards had hit Cyrus in the arm.

This brought up more questions. Was this the only piece that had gotten into Cyrus? What if there were other shards that she hadn't found yet, or even tiny fragments that had already entered the man's bloodstream? Come to think of it, Mars herself hadn't been standing all that far from Cyrus, what if she had been hit with tiny pieces of the chain too, and just hadn't noticed it?

Were pieces of the Red Chain a health danger? If so, what hazards did they pose? The red-haired woman decided that she had more important concerns to focus on at the moment. Still, it was an area to study at some point in case of long-term effects, so Mars decided to store the piece in a plastic container instead of throwing it out. She wouldn't tell Cyrus about it, if he knew part of the chain still existed he might be more likely to pursue his old goals.

Once the red shard had been put away, the redhead went back to treating her former leader's injuries. Most of the cuts were on the man's limbs, but there were also a few on his chest, abdomen and back.

It took a good hour, but Mars had finally washed and treated her former boss's injuries. Had that been what was giving him so much pain back at the campsite? Probably not, a few scratches wouldn't cause agony that Cyrus couldn't properly hide. This surely indicated the presence of internal injuries, or at least that Cyrus's time in the Distortion World had seriously messed with his organ functions.

How, though, was the red-haired woman supposed to tell what had been affected and how? It wasn't like she had an X-ray machine, and even then, she wasn't a professional, what if she misread the results? What if he required surgery?

Okay, one step at a time. She would do what she could, and maybe Cyrus's body functions would return to normal on their own. Or they wouldn't, but Mars needed to focus on the moment.


	10. Chapter 10

This chapter is basically more of Mars treating Cyrus, so if you're super uncomfortable with illness/medical stuff, feel free to skip it.

Rifling through the cardboard boxes as quickly as she could, the redhead did find some useful-looking medical supplies, including syringes, several boxes of various medicinal drugs (some injectable and others meant for ingesting), small lights, sample vials and tools for taking such samples, a box containing scalpels and other sharp tools, vitamins, an oxygen mask (but somehow she could find nothing to connect it to), several meters of various sized tubing, and a vast array of other odds and ends that might end up seeing use. Thankfully, the noise she made pulling things out and moving objects around did not seem to wake up Charon.

What she hadn't found was a stethoscope, so it seemed she would have to use a more direct approach to listening for abnormalities in Cyrus's organ functions. She accomplished this by tilting her head sideways and putting it to the man's chest. Not an ideal strategy, but it would have to do for now.

His breathing still sounded labored, although he did seem to be taking in air more deeply than when Mars found him lying in the Distortion World. It seemed that there was a tiny bit of some sort of fluid in his lungs as well, could it be from inhaling some of the water she had tried to feed him? Now she was starting to feel guilty. Still, she reminded herself, she did what she could. She would just have to be more careful next time.

From what she could hear of his heartbeat, it seemed as if his heart was putting in a lot more work than it had been in the Distortion World. From what Mars could tell, it was far higher than what a resting heartbeat should sound like.

The young woman was about to lift her head back up and check his pulse via his wrist when the man started stirring. Mars quickly pulled her face away from her former boss, but she appeared to have been a bit too slow.

Mars and Cyrus once again locked eyes, but this time Mars could easily sense disdain in the man's face. The red-haired woman backed away a bit, trying not to look embarrassed.

"Oh, master Cyrus, you're awake. I was just uh- trying to check on your health, that's all. I recently finished cleaning and dressing your injuries from the Distortion World. Honestly, I think you seem like you're in pretty good shape, all things considered."

The blue-haired man, however, continued to look at Mars with the same sort of soul-piercing stare that she had remembered. Did that mean that the Cyrus she knew was still there, despite the ordeal that had befallen him? He must remember Mars, then, he had to.

"Now that you're awake, can I get you something? I... you can still talk, right? I know you can understand me, but I just want to make sure."

"I am fine," was the man's three-word reply. It seemed that he could talk after all, or at least this time he was awake.

He was obviously lying, as the twitches of pain on his face were, if anything, more easily recognizable than before. The fact that they were in a better-lit room probably allowed Mars to see it more easily, but even despite that he was certainly in more pain than he had been at the campsite. She had to point this out, even if it agitated him. She couldn't just stand by and watch him suffer.

"Sorry if this isn't my place as a subordinate to say this, sir, but I can tell that you are in pain. I'm only here to help, master Cyrus."

At this, the man now regarded the red-haired woman with the same sort of confusion he had at the camp site. It couldn't be that he had forgotten who she was, could it? It was, however, perfectly in line with what Charon had warned her about in regards to the Distortion World.

"I don't trust you," was Cyrus's reply. After all she had done for him? He must have forgotten her.

"You don't know who I am, do you, Cyrus?" Mars stared down at the carpet, not meeting the man's eyes for once.

"No." Well, that was it. He really did forget his most loyal commander. She wondered what other memories had been lost as well. Was there anything he did remember?

"Let's introduce ourselves, then. I'm Mars, and I worked as your commander before the incident at Spear Pillar. When you were taken by Giratina, I searched for you. It took years, but now I have finally won you back from that monster." Mars held out a hand for Cyrus to shake.

The blue-haired man didn't take her hand, or even begin to raise his own. Rather, he gazed at Mars suspiciously.

"Well, okay. We can continue with that later. For now, I'd rather you have something to drink and eat, and hopefully you'll feel better. I've got plenty of pain medication for you as well, and don't try to tell me that you're fine."

The red-haired woman pulled over the backpack she had taken to the spring and brought out another water bottle and the bread that she had offered her former leader earlier.

When Mars first brought the water bottle over to Cyrus, the man once again stared warily, but nevertheless took the bottle using his hand.

Well, at least, he tried to take the bottle in his hand. The problem was that after four years in the Distortion World, he didn't actually have the strength to keep it still, or even hold it in his hand at all. The water bottle, which Mars had already opened, slipped out of his grip and hit the floor. Thankfully, the red-haired woman managed to pick it up before too much water could spill out and onto the carpet.

"Oops, let me hold it for you." Mars once again held up the bottle, this time closer to the blue-haired man's face.

"It's a pretty heavy bottle of water," she added. "You'll be able to hold stuff for yourself again soon enough, Cyrus. For now, I can hold your food. You won't be able to build your strength back up without eating first, though."

Now that the blankets and most of his clothes were off, the frail condition of the man's body was far more apparent. He looked like somebody had tried to assemble a person from a skeleton, but had forgotten to take weight and muscle mass into the equation before putting the skin on.

"Here." The young woman had to stop herself from flinching when she put the man into a sitting position- feeling next to nothing under his flesh but solid bone on his shoulder blade and back was rather disconcerting. Mars bit her lip.

Once again, a good amount of the water dripped down the man's front. It didn't seem to be as much as last time, though, and Mars was willing to take progress wherever she could find it. Once she had dried the man off with a towel, the red-haired woman smiled at her former leader, trying to hopefully raise trust.

"See? I haven't tried to poison you yet. I wouldn't put it by that old man sleeping on the bed, though, so watch out for him." Mars pointed across the small room at Charon, who was still sleeping soundly.

"Now..." The redhead once again picked the bag with the bread slices in it. "I think it's about time we got some food into you, sir." The blue-haired man once again regarded the bag with the utmost of suspicion. It seemed that Mars would have to be firm if she wanted to get anywhere.

"Here, I'll give you a little at a time, that way it should be easier to chew." The young woman opened the bag and started to rip one of the bread slices into pieces, as if she were about to feed it to a Ducklett.

The blue-haired man, however, didn't appear to want any part in this.

"Keep it to yourself," the man muttered, shaking his head.

"Come on, Cyrus. Normally, I'd follow your every word, but this is a matter of not letting you starve to death. I'm not letting up. You have to be hungry."

"I am not," the man retorted, glaring up at his red-haired former subordinate, who returned his cold gaze with a stare of her own.

This staring contest continued for about a minute, until the silence was interrupted by the blue-haired man's stomach growling. Mars's face broke into a triumphant smile.

"...fine." Cyrus muttered, finally conceding.

"I'm only trying to help, Cyrus sir, and by 'help' I mean 'keep you alive'. Now here, please take this. I promise I washed my hands." The red-haired woman held one of the bread pieces in front of Cyrus's face.

The man sighed, but nevertheless let Mars feed him.

"Okay, that's the whole piece. We better stop there and see how well your system handles it. Though I should probably give you some pain meds, too. First, though..." Mars stood up and walked over to a drawer, taking out a clean blanket.

"Here, this should keep you warm." The young woman draped the blanket over Cyrus, figuring that it would also help him feel more secure now that he wasn't lying on the couch shirtless, which had seemed to bother the man a fair bit.

"Maybe later I can make you some tea. For now, though, I'd rather focus on taking away some of the pain. Here, let me find something that should help." The woman started picking over the medications she had found in the cardboard box. After some muttering to herself, she decided on a small pill bottle.

"I'm not going to inject you with anything until I talk to Charon and see what he thinks, but these should do for now." Mars read the label carefully, then twisted open the bottle and shook out three pills.

"One at a time is probably better. I'd offer you some water with them, but I'm not sure how well that would work." Considering that most of the water Mars had tried to give Cyrus had dribbled out of the side of his mouth, this seemed like the wisest course of action.

"Here." The red-haired woman held one of the pills out in front of her former leader's face.

To her surprise, however, the man flinched and fixed his eyes on the small capsule, an expression of unmistakable horror on his face. Sure, she hadn't expected Cyrus to just take the pill from her without a fuss, but the terrified look in the man's eyes? That was certainly new.

"Cyrus, sir," Mars retracted her hand away from his face. "Are you okay? Well, obviously not, but for as long as I've known you, which was years, I've never seen you look so..." Fearful? Shocked? Disturbed?

Come to think of it, she had never seen him display fear at all. Even facing down Giratina at Spear Pillar, he had remained unperturbed. Well, angry maybe, but not actually afraid. Why was he reacting this way now? Was it something that the Distortion World had done to him?

The man must have realized that he had been showing emotion, as his expression soon turned to realization, then back to forced calm. What was going on in his mind?

"What's wrong? Was it the pill? I- I won't make you take these if you don't want to." Mars started to put the pills back into the bottle.

"Wait!" Cyrus called out, causing the red-haired woman to freeze, the open bottle in one hand and pills in the other.

"It's fine. I will take the pills." The look of horror that had been on the man's face was gone completely.

"Are you sure? You looked pretty traumatized just then. I don't want to hurt you."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Just give me the pills, and stop making an ordeal over nothing." Did the man not realize that a fearful expression had crossed his face? Or was Mars simply seeing things? It was true, she hadn't slept much lately, and coming back from the Distortion World with hallucinations wasn't exactly unfathomable, seeing what the place had done to Cyrus.

Somehow, something told her that those guesses were both wrong. It probably had to do with the defensiveness Mars could swear she heard in Cyrus's tone just then. Still, if he didn't take the medication, he'd have to go through even more pain.

"If you're sure." The red-haired woman once again took the pills out of the bottle and held one in front of Cyrus's mouth. To her mild surprise, the man actually took it from her, although he appeared to be having a more difficult time keeping a neutral expression than before.

"Was that okay? If you don't want the other two, I understand."

"I am fine. Give me the other two."

Mars nodded and fed Cyrus the second pill, then the third. His facial expression did not change much, but Mars could swear that she saw something flash in his eyes as he swallowed the third pill. She didn't intend on bothering him about it any more, though. There was no point in it, and she would probably just provoke him if she tried.

"That's all I need from you for now." Mars moved the pillows she had put behind Cyrus to prop the man up. Hopefully he'd be more comfortable laying down.

"Says here that the pills should start their work in around thirty minutes. According to the bottle, the side effects are..." Yikes, that was a long list. Were those the usual side effects, or just the potential ones?

"...rather unpleasant, but it looks like you'll live." The redhead smiled at her blue-haired patient and placed the bottle down on the floor.

"Remember, I'm here for you. If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask. I know it's difficult now, but I know you'll get better."


	11. Chapter 11

"So you don't think he remembers anything?" Charon frowned, regarding the sleeping blue-haired man on the couch with what appeared to be an expression of disappointment.

Of course all the old man would care about was whether he got his promised retirement fund or not. Still, it did vaguely annoy her that Cyrus might be dying and all Charon could think about was himself.

"Cyrus could well be dying from what the Distortion World did to him, now isn't the time to be whining about your paycheck. I mean, at least pretend to care!" Okay, maybe Mars was more bothered than just "vaguely".

"We had a bargain. I highly doubt Cyrus would remotely consider your word to mean anything, but I expect better from you." Charon shook his head, smiling a tiny bit.

"I'm not about to just run off with Cyrus, if that's what you're implying. I'll have you know I actually do keep my word. It's just that I wish you would be more, well... considerate about the man's condition. That's all."

"All right, all right. We can talk about this later. Though I would take care to make sure that Cyrus doesn't just slip off into the night as soon as he's capable of it. Wouldn't put that past him, heh heh."

Would Cyrus actually do that? Even after all that Mars had done for him? But then again, the man did appear to have lost his memory. With that in mind, there was no telling what he would attempt in regards to escaping. Furthermore, if he had also forgotten that he was a wanted criminal, surely the man would be caught and arrested in minutes!

"I suppose putting extra security on the apartment door might be a wise investment. At least a key needed to get out. I should also have my Pokémon watch him when I'm not around." Mars's Pokémon... right on her belt like they should be.

Except they weren't. Panicking, Mars glared at Charon.

"Where are my Pokémon, Charon?" The red-haired woman glared over at the scientist, her eyes narrowing.

"Oh, those. Well, I figured that if I was going to get my payment, it wouldn't hurt to collect some more collateral. As insurance, if you will."

"That wasn't part of the agreement, damn it! Give me my Pokémon back. Now." The young woman's frustration only grew as the old man smiled at her.

"Now that Cyrus is back, I had no way of guaranteeing that you wouldn't just attack me with one of your Pokémon and go back on your word. If you want them back, you'll have to give me my retirement money. It's as simple as that."

Mars stood there fuming, trying not to do anything rash. She had to keep her cool, otherwise she would risk not only her Pokémon, but possibly even Cyrus as well. After all, it seemed that Charon knew more about dealing with side-effects from the Distortion World than she did.

"Fine. You just better give them back when we get your money... wait. If Cyrus has lost his memory, then how am I supposed to get you your money?" To Mars's surprise, Charon didn't actually look concerned this time around.

"Oh, that's on your hands, not mine. You know, Cyrus didn't just keep everything he did in his head. I specifically remember him storing information on Galactic's database. It should still be there, unless Saturn decided to purge the data. Actually, I'm not sure if Saturn could even access the data, let alone purge it. It required a handprint signature from Cyrus himself."

Well, that was important information.

"Why couldn't you tell me this sooner?" The red-haired woman was honestly offended that Cyrus had told Charon this information and not her. Unless Charon was lying...

"I thought you knew," the old scientist answered, shrugging.

"I'm not sure if I believe you. Why exactly would Cyrus entrust you with this fact but not me?"

"I don't know, as I just said, I thought you would have known. Although he didn't tell me directly, per say, rather I saw him accessing the database on a few occasions, and assumed what it was. Cyrus didn't trust anybody, even you."

Yes, he did. He had trusted Mars enough to keep her by his side much of the time, including on Spear Pillar, when he was about to accomplish his life's dream. Maybe there was some other reason why he had kept the database a secret?

"So, how do you expect me to access this database and figure out where Cyrus has stored his extra money so that I can wire it to you? I'm hardly welcome at Galactic Headquarters. Even if Saturn found it in his heart to let me in and not tell the police, there are others there who would not hesitate to file a criminal report. Plus there's the fact that I would need to take Cyrus in order to access the information, and I doubt many people there would be too happy to see him back."

"You're clever enough, I'm sure you'll find a way. If all else fails, you could always saw off his hand and bring that to headquarters." The old man shrugged matter-of-factly.

"Charon, that's disgusting. You're not funny, you know." What kind of sick person would make that suggestion, even jokingly?

"Of course it was funny! So was that look on your face when I mentioned it. Anyway, it looks like you'll have to drag Cyrus over to Galactic's headquarters and sneak him in. If all the database requires is a hand signature, you should be able to get the information you need and download it onto a drive. If there's a password needed to go along with it, we're going to be out of luck. Unless Cyrus somehow is able to access that memory, but not only would that take a near-miracle, he would also have to trust you enough to believe you're trying to help him. Oh, and then there would be that small problem of him needing to be actually conscious to remember and type in a password."

"So then we'll just need to hope that all it takes is a handprint." Mars sighed. This was getting awfully complicated. But then again, it had been that way all along, hadn't it?

"So," continued the red-haired woman. "I'll think on that. In the meantime, you need to help me take care of Cyrus. I gave him some painkillers while he was awake, but I'd rather we get him on an intravenous drip as well, since he was obviously in a lot of agony. I dressed his external injuries, but it seems that the Distortion World did some internal damage as well."

"That would make sense. The physics in that place are enough to confuse any living system, and Cyrus wasn't exactly in peak health to begin with if I had to guess. At any rate, I'm ready to start treating Cyrus when you are, the supplies we need should be in that box, which it looks like you've already sorted through."

The day passed, and shortly before sunset, the blue-haired man once again regained consciousness. He seemed less alert this time, probably due to the drugs in his system. However, Mars wondered if this might end up being a plus, as it might result in the man being less defensive and more laid back.

"Urgh… you." Cyrus's eyes fixed on Mars, who was now sitting in front of the couch that the man was lying on. It seemed that Cyrus had at least recognized Mars from the day before, even if he hadn't addressed her by name. This was at least a start, right?

The red-haired woman decided to let her former leader get situated before asking any questions. She watched as he noticed the IV attached to his arm, then turned his gaze back to Mars. He seemed to be trying to pull off his usual glare, though for some reason it seemed slightly less harsh. The young former commander figured that it likely had something to do with him being high on the medication he was now getting.

"What is this?" Cyrus asked in what seemed to be an attempt at a demanding voice, which somehow fell slightly flat. Mars smiled and prepared to answer, but it was Charon that spoke up first.

"It's a phone charger we stuck in you, figured you could use a charge. What does it look like to you? You do know what IVs are, do you not?"

Mars didn't think that Charon's sarcastic answer was going to help anything, but she didn't vocalize this. All she would likely get was more sarcasm.

"I know what an IV is, and I can assume well enough that it's for pain, what I was asking for is the name of the drug you are giving me." Cyrus turned his focus to the old scientist for a few moments, but then snapped it back to Mars.

"That glare won't work on me, young man. You might as well turn it back to your lady friend here, she's the only one in this room that you're going to be able to intimidate. At any rate, it's morphine. Mars insisted that you were in a whole lot of pain." Charon shrugged.

The blue-haired man's gaze upon Mars grew more intense, but the young woman was in no frame of mind to back down, especially after what Charon had just said. She had done what was needed to help her former leader, and she was going to keep helping him, whether he appreciated it or not. He could thank her later.

"That should be a lot better than before. If there's anything else you need, I'm willing to get it." Cyrus didn't answer back, but Mars knew that he had heard her.

"I know now may not seem like the right time for this, but I have some questions for you, Cyrus. You see, Mars and I made a deal. I helped her retrieve you out of the Distortion World, and I expect something in return. Sure, you could always ignore the deal, but keep in mind that I'm the one administering your drugs. You wouldn't want me to accidentally give you a fatal dose. Or I might simply forget to give you medication all together, leaving you with the pain you had before. You just never know..."

The much younger man obviously didn't like what he was hearing, but nevertheless looked up at Charon with what was clearly defeat.

"What do you want?" the blue-haired man asked coldly.

"I want the same thing I wanted when I first took my old job from you- to retire somewhere quiet and luxurious for my last few years. However, I'm a little short on funds right now. That's where you come in. I know for a fact that you stored large amounts of money in different accounts, and all I require is a measly twenty million poké. I'd guess you've got billions of poké in those accounts, a mere twenty million is nothing to you, surely."

"Twenty million? You told me ten!" Mars wasn't exactly surprised that Charon was changing the numbers, but it was still infuriating. Still, the old vulture did have Cyrus by the throat, and by effect Mars, too.

"I figured 10 million wouldn't be enough. It's not like it's too much of an inconvenience, the only hard part will be getting into Cyrus's accounts in the first place."

It was then that Mars noticed the look of slight confusion on Cyrus's face. Of course! He hadn't even remembered her, how likely was it that he had any idea as to what the old man was talking about?

"Charon, wait. I'm not sure Cyrus even remembers that he ran a company, and he surely doesn't know who you are. After all, as I told you, he didn't even remember me." Cyrus wouldn't remember that annoying old scientist over his most loyal follower, right?

"You know, Mars, there's an easy way to find out. Cyrus! Hmm, let's start out with an easy one. Does the name 'Team Galactic' mean anything to you?"

Cyrus appeared to be trying hard to think about Charon's question. Mars figured that the drugs were surely not helping him in remembering. Finally, the blue-haired man spoke up.

"It... yes. I recall... an organization of sorts? A group with a greater purpose. Its goal... something to do with changing the very fundamentals of thought itself. Many would say it's too difficult a goal, but somehow this organization came close. Human nature broken down into its elements... knowledge, willpower, and emotion. These three elements clash to create what is known as 'spirit'. Spirit... raw, unfinished, incomplete. It must be destroyed… and replaced."

Galactic's former leader was no longer looking at either of the two other people in the room, but rather appeared to be staring off into empty space. It was as if he was staring at something in the room that Charon and Mars couldn't see. Were the drugs giving him hallucinations? Or was he simply lost in thought? Hopefully the latter, as the red-haired woman had no idea how she would deal with Cyrus hallucinating.

"Well, it seems like you're still the same delusional, stubborn fool you always were. So, I'm going to need you to go into your organization's headquarters, and transfer some funds to me. Then you can go about doing whatever you want, presumably involving using more of that money to hire some proper medical staff."

"My organization... the group that I led to near victory, only to be stopped by an interfering abomination. A creature that does not belong to this world. I will not make the same mistakes this time."

Mars was considering cutting Cyrus off to mention the agreement she had made with Giratina, but figured that this wasn't the time or place. He wouldn't make the same mistakes- including trying to change the world in the first place.

Mars had always acted like she agreed with Cyrus's judgement no matter what. Thinking about it now, she realized that she had only been following because she trusted him to make the right choices. Over the years he had been gone, however, she had found herself questioning the beliefs that he had so passionately spoke of.

Was Cyrus's world really something that Mars had wanted? Or had she simply obeyed due to the belief that she owed him? It wasn't Cyrus's vaguely explained dreams that she wanted, it was Cyrus himself.

Now that Giratina had clearly told Mars that any more extreme actions from Cyrus would result in the man's death, it was time to try and convince him to give up and turn the page. It wouldn't be easy, but maybe if she repeated Giratina's threat, he would be more likely to listen.

"Good, it seems that you haven't lost too much of your memory. Now, let's try a slightly harder question. Do you remember me? Who am I?" Charon wasn't going to get an answer to that one, no way.

"He didn't remember who I was, how is he going to remember you of all people?" Mars shook her head.

"Let's give him a chance, Mars."

"You…" Cyrus once again appeared deep in thought. "You were the one I hired as a scientist. You ran the laboratory."

"Excellent!" Charon replied, shooting a gloating expression at Mars, who stared back incredulously. "That should be enough questions for now. Just be ready to head to your old headquarters tomorrow to transfer the money. Just keep in mind that you're now a wanted criminal, and being seen will most likely result in your arrest."

"Come on, Cyrus. You have to remember me from before, too. I worked in your organization for years, and received the highest title you could give me- commander. When you disappeared after your plans failed to Giratina, I alone searched for you. It was I that rescued you from the Distortion World, because of me that you're here now. Everybody else has given up, but I am willing to help in your rehabilitation."

The blue-haired man once again turned his head in Mars's direction, but this time he had the same distant look in his eyes that Mars had just seen after he had answered Charon's question. It was as if the man wasn't quite present in the same room he was now lying in, but rather in a completely different time and location. The red-haired woman found it to be rather disconcerting, but after what Cyrus had been through during the last few years, was it really a surprise that he was acting so strangely?

"Your name... you said was 'Mars'. I... think I do remember you. You worked directly under me. You were there to defend me, and followed my orders without question."

He did remember after all! This was great news. Mars had to restrain herself from laying her hand on top of his and holding on tight. Instead, she gave him a smile.

"See? He did remember you, you just had to give him some time. Now, since it looks like that's settled, I'm going to get ready to go to bed. If there's an emergency, feel free to wake me up. Otherwise, I'm sure the two of you will be fine without me."


	12. Chapter 12

"You remembered. I thought you had forgotten for good, but... I'm so glad I was wrong." Of course, this also meant that he had remembered his old goals, and probably how he had made the Red Chain. Mars would have to be very careful not to let him return to his old plans.

The blue-haired man spent several minutes lying there in silence before finally turning to look at Mars and posing a question.

"Mars, how long has it been? Since the day that it all fell apart."

It was a question that the young woman figured that he'd ask eventually, but not quite this soon. Still, she supposed that it might be important information if the two of them were going to sneak into Galactic's headquarters the next day.

"That terrible day... on Spear Pillar, in late Spring. Since then, it's been nearly four-and-a-half years."

The man's expression didn't change too much, but Mars could swear she saw some small element of surprise in Cyrus's face.

"Actually, it's been a few months more than four-and-a-half years, to correct you." Charon had just walked by the couch in his PJ's, then stopped a few steps from the bed to make his comment.

Over four-and-a-half years? Wait, how could that be? Mars had been counting the months.

"It's only November, though. What happened at Spear Pillar was in mid-June, so four-and-a-half years is about accurate."

A look of confusion crossed Charon's face at Mars's comment. He stood there looking puzzled for a moment, but then a look of realization seemed to hit him.

"It might not have felt like it, but you were in the Distortion World for a good two months. Today is January eighteenth."

January eighteenth... that really was a good couple of months. What it also meant, as Mars knew well, was that it was the day of Cyrus's birthday. He had turned thirty-one that day.

"It's January eighteenth... Cyrus, it's- well, I'm sure you can remember why this day is special." The red-haired woman was sure he'd know the day of his own birthday. Right?

Cyrus appeared to be thinking hard for a good minute before he spoke.

"I do not know what you are referring to," the blue-haired man replied, shaking his head.

Did he really not know? Well, between the Distortion World and the drugs, she supposed it really wasn't too much of a surprise. Still, Mars wasn't about to let her former leader's birthday pass without doing something in honor of it.

"It's your birthday, Cyrus. Counting the time you spent in the Distortion World, you're thirty-one today. I'm sorry I didn't buy a present for you. Just between the Distortion World and getting you and time acting weirdly... I'll get something for you today."

"No. I-" Cyrus seemed about to tell Mars off for suggesting such a thing, but stopped mid-sentence. His expression softened, going from his trademark judgemental glare to a slight smile, the coldness gone from his eyes.

"Don't concern yourself about a gift, Mars. It's enough that you brought me back from the Distortion World. Your unwavering support means more to me than you might think, in a practical way, obviously, not in a sentimental one. I will need that same support throughout my recovery, and likely beyond that as well."

This was the Cyrus that the red-haired woman had always been so fond of. The times when he dropped that hard and icy attitude of his and showed a much different man. His expression was almost kind... well maybe with "almost" being the key word. Still, the point was that Cyrus seemed to have decided against resisting Mars and realized that the two of them needed each other.

"Cyrus, I..." The young former commander's voice trailed off as something hit her.

What if this wasn't the real Cyrus? What if he was simply adjusting his behavior to keep her loyalty? Maybe the real Cyrus was the cold-natured man that she usually saw.

No way. She had just gotten the one person she cared about back from the clutches of that horrible place. She couldn't question him now, that was not in the cards. What did Cyrus always say when she started to question anything he said? He had told her that she was letting her emotions take control. She couldn't let this happen now, not when the man needed her.

"Mars, you appear concerned." See? Cyrus was worrying about her, that surely showed that he cared!

"I'm fine," the red-haired woman answered, shaking her head and forcing her expression back to a warm smile.

"It's just that... I am going to find a present for you. After all you've done for me, it would be insulting to forget your birthday."

"Fine, if I can't convince you otherwise."

Yes, it was time to try and get a present together before tomorrow. What should she bring him? That would take a bit of thinking.

"First of all, let's get that tea I promised you." She had kept some cinnamon tea in her private stash, and there was a small microwave in the apartment that she had brought in from the van.

"While the water's heating up, is there anything else I can get you for now? More bread? Yes, of course, you haven't eaten since yesterday, and only a tiny bit of food at that. Here, I'll get more of the loaf." Mars located the sealable plastic bag and brought it over to the sofa.

This time, Cyrus didn't protest to being hand-fed, which was a relief. The man even made an effort to lean forward and take the food from her hand, whereas before he had only done so much as to begrudgingly open his mouth and let her insert the bread pieces. Sure, this resulted in the occasional piece of bread falling out, but Mars found that if she held onto the food until she was sure it was far enough in, this was much less likely to happen.

"That's one slice, and just in time- it looks like the water's finished heating in the microwave." Well, in actuality the microwave had beeped and stopped around a minute ago, but the red-haired woman figured that the water would stay hot enough while she fed Cyrus the rest of the bread slice.

Once the bag of tea had been put in the cup to seep, Mars gave Cyrus another slice of bread piece-by-piece. She wasn't sure if she was imagining it or not, but it appeared that the blue-haired man was now eating at a considerably faster rate than the last two times, and having much less difficulty keeping the food in his mouth. Progress?

Actually, by the last piece, the red-haired woman could swear that she had hardly even held the scrap in front of the man's face for a few seconds before realizing that her hand was empty and that the piece of bread was already in the process of being swallowed.

"Sir, I know you must be starving, but might I recommend slowing down some? Especially considering your condition, I'm worried that you might make things worse... or choke."

Come to think of it, had Cyrus always been such a fast eater? As far as Mars could remember, the few instances when she had seen him eat solid food (as opposed to the odd beverages that he usually could be seen consuming, which he claimed were a "better" way of sustaining oneself), he hadn't taken much time to finish.

The blue-haired man's reply to this was to stare back at Mars with his usual cold gaze. Had Mars said something that he didn't like?

"It's- not to judge you or anything! I'm sorry, I- let's just bring over your tea." With that, the young former commander stood up and took the mug off of the coffee table that she had laid it down on and brought it over to Cyrus. It seemed to have cooled to slightly above room temperature, which was probably much better than giving it to her former leader boiling hot.

With a bit of help, Cyrus was able to drink the tea without (too much of it) spilling. Well, it was more than just a bit of help, but Mars saw progress. When the tea mug was empty, the red-haired woman set aside the cup and stood up.

"I'm going to go find a gift for you. Please stay right where you are, and don't do anything to strain yourself. If you were to walk out, you would be arrested in no time." Well, not that Cyrus exactly could walk out given his condition, but it would pay to be safe. Besides, if he tried to move too much, the man might hurt himself, or dislodge the IV in his arm.

It was frigid cold outside, and the wig Mars was wearing seemed to once again try its best to fly off of her head and into the night. It wasn't quite what the young woman would call a blizzard, but it was getting close. The only good news in this was that the flurry of falling snow would make her harder to see when out in the open.

Since the mall would be much too far away to walk to, Mars decided to stop in a much smaller store that was nearby instead. She had shopped there before, due to the large discounts that the shop offered, along with the fact that it was relatively close to the apartment complex. It was a tiny store, but the small selection of wares would have to do for now.

Once the red-haired woman had braved the storm, the sight of the shop's window coming into view was more than welcome to her. She hoped dearly that the bell ringing at her entrance wouldn't draw too much attention. However, thankfully, she appeared to be the only customer in the shop at the moment.

She made her choice quickly, even though she was having trouble deciding on which item would suit Cyrus better. In the end, the young former commander decided to just pick the one she was currently holding, and made her way up to the register to pay in cash.

12,000 poké was no sum to sneeze at, but it wasn't like Mars was going to settle for anything substandard for her former boss. She had never gotten the impression that her birthday and holiday gifts had actually impressed the man, but this time she had the perfect idea. Of course, the fact that Cyrus was no longer the richest man in Sinnoh certainly helped.

The way back was even more difficult than getting to the shop. It was not only because the red-haired woman was now carrying a package, but also due to the fact that the winds had gotten even stronger. Thankfully, this time Mars remembered that her jacket had a hood, but the frigid gusts threatened to knock that off of her, too.

After what seemed like far too long, Mars finally reached the door to her apartment complex. Once she was inside, everything was much easier to carry. She reached the right door soon after, and made her way into the apartment. Thankfully, she had hidden the key in an inside pocket of her coat, so it would have had a hard time falling out.

The lock clicked, and seconds after the red-haired woman's footsteps could be heard, although the noise was muffled rather well by the somewhat filthy carpet. Apparently she hadn't been quiet enough despite this, as the blue-haired man on the couch was already looking her way as she turned her head to see him.

"So much for sneaking up on and surprising you with this. Though I guess there wasn't much point in trying, you always have had excellent hearing. Anyway, I got you a present for your birthday. Sorry about the package being a bit damp, snow got onto it while I was carrying it back."

Mars laid the rather large package in front of her boss, but soon realized that his arm and hand muscles were probably too weak to pick up the box, let alone pull off the tape and brown paper.

"Oh, sorry, silly me. I'll help you open it." With that said, the red-haired woman started taking off the tape and paper that the store employee had used to wrap the box at Mars's request. She tried to work fast, but carefully- just as she had seen Cyrus doing all those years ago whenever she had given him a gift.

"Oops." She had just ripped off a little more paper than she had intended, ruining her perfect unwrap of the package. Oh well, Cyrus couldn't care too much, right?

"Here it is!" Mars lifted the item out of the box and showed it to her former leader.

"A coat," Cyrus remarked, his expression hard to read.

"Do you like it?" Mars asked, somewhat dreading the answer. What if he disliked the style? Or what if it wasn't fancy enough for him? Or warm enough?

"I believe it is a very appropriate gift for our current situation. Your efforts are not going unnoticed." It was a bit hard to tell, but Mars could swear she saw the faintest hint of a smile on his face.

"I thought since your old coat is torn, bloody, and would get you noticed much more easily, that you could really use a new one. It was the warmest one I could find at the store I went to. I told Charon to buy some clothes in your size, so those should be lying around here as well. Oh, and there's something else in the box for you, too."

Mars stopped rambling and pulled out a thick, wooly-looking scarf from the bottom of the box, and placed it on top of the coat, which was now sitting on her lap.

"Those blankets weren't doing a good enough job protecting your neck for my liking, so I thought a scarf would be a good addition to the coat." Cyrus looked from Mars down to the scarf for a moment before responding.

"Mars… thank you. It is very beneficial to have you back on the team. You will be a vital piece in building back our former glory."

She had been right, he really did appreciate her, or at the very least her actions. All those rumors she had heard after Galactic's fall, about what he had apparently told the child who had taken him on- they were all untrue. They had to be. Cyrus did care, and he certainly was willing to reward those who did their job properly.

It was a bit unclear at first what the man was doing by raising his right hand and holding it out in front of her. At first she thought that he was reaching for the scarf, but when her former boss kept it in the air for a few seconds, Mars understood. She then raised her own hand and firmly, but gently, grasped the man's hand in a handshake.

"Sir," Mars declared, letting go of her leader's hand and standing up. "I humbly dedicate my service to aiding your recovery in any way I can."

With that, the red-haired woman bent down on one knee with her head down in a gesture of respect.

What Cyrus didn't know was that she no longer had the intention in following him in his lofty ambitions of godhood and a spiritless world. She felt guilty for this eventual disobedience that she would have to show, but knew it would be in his best interests to force a change in his goals. However, that could wait until a later day.

For now, there was tomorrow's infiltration of their old headquarters to think about, and that alone was enough weight on her mind.


	13. Chapter 13

Notes: This chapter is where things start to get more intense. Cyrus is still sick, and Mars needs to go through Galactic's base without being noticed.

Thanks to BlackjackGabbiani and Dmage for giving me some pointers on how to throw some realism into the mix, and NASA's website for having info on the medical effects of being in space, which is close enough to the Distortion World, or at least as close as one can get.

After a drive to the other side of the city, Mars stepped down and out of the back of the van. Behind her, Redshift gingerly picked up the half-awake blue-haired man Mars had been sitting next to during the ride.

So much had happened today, or rather yesterday, since the twentieth had probably started by now, judging by how late it had been when they left the apartment. Thankfully, Mars had been able to convince Charon to let her have just one of her Pokémon, the one that could produce illusions. This would be vital for the red-haired woman to get her leader into the base unnoticed so that he could access the computer database and transfer some funds.

Cyrus himself hadn't been doing as well as Mars had hoped in the past day, but he still insisted that he would be capable of accomplishing this mission. At least he looked a lot better, or at least cleaner, now that the man had used the apartment's bathroom tub (with Charon's help, he refused to even let Mars in the room), and dressed in the clothing that had been bought for him much prior, as well as the coat Mars had just given him as a birthday present. While Charon had mostly been the one to help the blue-haired man dress, Cyrus had allowed the young commander to help get the coat on. She had also been the one to secure the scarf around her boss's neck, further protecting him from the cold.

"Good luck, you'll need it. Now go forth and get me my retirement money." With that said, Charon got back into the front seat of the van and drove off.

There was no point just standing there in the cold, so Mars marched purposefully towards the front doors of the base and entered, hoping that her green wig and grunt outfit would keep her true identity a secret. She could hear the illusioned Redshift (who was now carrying Cyrus bridal style) following, his back paws making a scrunching noise in the snow as he dragged them across the ground to make a more human-like pawprint.

Here they were, standing at the glass door leading to the entry room of the building, where the front desk was. Mars had considered entering the base through the storage room entrance, but that was much farther away from where they needed to go. The red-haired commander flashed the necessary key and entered into the building, which looked much more unwelcoming looming over her now that it was no longer her home.

The front room was empty, but the computers there didn't give access to the accounts Cyrus could use to transfer funds, plus it was a rather bad spot to be if they wanted to stay hidden. The party of three would have to go deeper into the base.

Two sets of feet could be heard climbing the staircase, and Redshift's claws clacking on the metal flooring after they had reached the top brought worry that they might be found out. Then there was the fact that any person to bump into the Zoroark would break the illusion.

Mars proceeded carefully past the generators lining the left side of the hallway, thankful that the humming noise they were making would cover up the sound of Redshift's steps. Well, at least for the moment. Soon enough, however, they had to leave the safety of the generator's noise and make a right turn towards the hall that led to both the kitchen and the TV room.

The flashes of the television screen could be faintly seen through the crack between the doors, indicating that there was likely somebody inside, watching. Maybe it would be wise to go through the door with the party fully illusioned. But then again, a keycard was needed to open the doors. Magically opening doors would seem more than a bit suspicious.

After taking deep breath, Mars slid her keycard through the lock. She tried to look as natural as possible while walking along the back wall and to the teleporter. Her heart almost stopped when the one other person in the room looked away from the television and directly at her. Mercifully, he seemed to think nothing of her and turned back to the TV. Hopefully the employee wouldn't notice the warp panel beeping twice as it was used by Mars, and then the Cyrus-toting Zoroark.

Walking through the now deserted assembly room where Cyrus had once given his speeches was an eerie experience. The room was almost completely dark, lit only by the green glow of some power generators in the corners of the room. However, it did at least seem that the room was empty, as the party reached the warp panel leading to the nap room.

The nap room seemed to be occupied by a couple of Galactic employees, each lying in separate beds. Both seemed to be sleeping, so Mars hurried her way up the next set of stairs, which led up to a long hallway.

Walking here reminded Mars of all the times that she had gone down here on the way to Cyrus's office. She wondered if Cyrus could remember walking through the same hallway, too. Obviously, it wasn't a good time to ask him any questions, but she did make a mental note to talk to him and see how much exactly he remembered all that had taken place there at some point.

Soon, the three found themselves at an all-too familiar junction of warp panels. Mars knew that the closest one led to a storage room, which didn't have any operating computers as far as she could remember. The farthest one led to Cyrus's office, but she figured that might be a bad place to go in case Saturn was using the office now. The only warp panel left was the one in the middle, which led to a room where Mars often used to do her work. There should be at least a few computers still there.

The red-haired woman thanked her lucky stars when she realized that this room was now empty as well. She picked a computer sitting at a desk near the back of the room. As tense as the situation was, there was no point in wasting time, so Mars plugged in the computer and turned it on.

The welcome screen popped up, then the computer seemed to take ages to load. Was it because the computer was outdated, or just in bad shape? Finally, the login screen loaded asking for a username and password.

Great. Now Cyrus would have to remember his username and password to log on. Furthermore, there seemed to be no hand scanner nearby, and the screen itself was not a touchscreen, so Mars highly doubted it would ask the blue-haired man to place his hand there.

The young woman signaled for her Pokémon to drop the illusion so that he and Cyrus could be seen for the moment, which would make operating the computer far easier. The room was otherwise empty, so Mars figured that there'd be no harm in making the two temporarily visible. Besides, Redshift probably needed a break, since using his abilities for too long would wear him out.

As the illusion dropped, the first thing that Mars noticed was how ill Cyrus looked. It was almost like they were back at the campsite in Sendoff Spring with the man barely out of the Distortion World. The red-haired woman wondered if he'd be able to hold up for the entire trip.

"Cyrus sir," Mars whispered, trying to keep her voice as low as possible. "Are you holding out all right? Are you sure you can do this?"

"I'm fine, do not concern yourself with my health at the moment," Cyrus replied in an equally quiet whisper.

Mars moved aside so that Cyrus could operate the machine, but first helped Redshift place him onto the chair in front of the monitor. Hitting the right keys would be a challenge for the man, assuming he could even type at all.

After a full thirty seconds had elapsed, however, Cyrus had yet to even try to press a key. He just seemed to be staring at the screen, as if not sure what to do.

"Sir, we don't have long here. Would it be better if you told me what to type and I typed for you?" Mars offered, internally panicking at the fact they could be found at any moment.

"No, I can handle this myself," Cyrus answered, his face now inches from the screen as if he couldn't quite read the words.

Finally, he lifted his hands in the general direction of the keyboard, and seemed about to try typing. However, he hadn't seemed to have noticed that the cursor hadn't yet clicked the text entry box. Mars quickly moved the mouse and clicked so that the text box was now able to be written in.

As it turned out, Mars probably hadn't needed to click the textbox so fast, as Cyrus still hadn't started typing. He was now staring intensely down at the keyboard, apparently trying to align his hands over the right keys. When he at last seemed satisfied with the positioning of his hands (although, Mars noticed, they were still not on the right keys, and one hand was a row higher than the other), he finally began typing.

Unsurprisingly, all that he could enter in the username slot was gibberish. Well, that or he had been so worried that people would get into his account that he had set his username to "5tqejm9int".

"Sir... you do know that this is the username entry, not the password, right?" Hopefully Cyrus wouldn't be too annoyed at her for stating this fact.

"Yes, I am trying to type in my username," Cyrus stated. Did he even know what keys he was hitting?

The red-haired woman sighed. At this rate, they would be caught for sure.

"Cyrus sir, I think that this would go much faster if I typed in the information for you. Please could you dictate the information and let me type?"

"...fine. The username is "tgadmin". No capitals, no spaces. Type that in while I recall the password."

Mars did as instructed, then waited for the password. The name being "tgadmin" made sense, as Mars's username had been "tgcomm". The password, however, she doubted would be so similar.

Nearly a minute passed, but the blue-haired man did not state a password. Sick of waiting, Mars decided that speaking up might be a good move.

"Sir, have you remembered the password?" At this rate, it would be light out before they finished. That is, if they didn't get caught first.

"I... do not recall the character sequence that I used. It was rather lengthy, and encompassed a variety of letters, numbers, and symbols. I am not sure why the information escapes me, as I must have used it several times a day. On the days I didn't spend most of in my office, that is. The computer in there required a hand signature and iris scan instead."

Well, this was it. The red-haired commander's heart sank. Now she wouldn't be able to retrieve her own and Cyrus's Pokémon from Charon, or that locket. Even more importantly, she would have a hard time paying for Cyrus's recovery. She... wait, what had Cyrus just said about the computer in his office?

"Cyrus sir! That's it! We need to get into your office! Then we'll be able to access the data... so long as Saturn's not using it now." Going in there would be a gamble, but it had to be worth the risk. Besides, even if Saturn was there, Redshift could just take him out and they could still access the data if they were fast.

"Yes, that should work. As much of a risk as it is, we are left with little choice. Quickly, we need to get into my office. You do still have the admin key to get in, do you not?"

Mars reached into her coat pocket and took out the admin key while Redshift once again carefully picked up Cyrus.

"Yes, I have it right- master Cyrus sir?" Mars held up a hand to signal Redshift not to illusion yet. Looking closely at her leader, she could tell that he was once again in a great deal of pain, and this time he wasn't hiding it as well as before. This seemed to imply that the pain had gotten worse.

"I told you not to worry yourself over my physical condition. We do not have time to spare." Despite his words, the blue-haired man's facial expression was contorted into one of great agony, and the fact that one of his hands was clutching his chest and the other his abdomen was no reassurance.

"It's just the medication wearing off. I will be- ugh! ...fine." Right.

"With all due respect sir, I'm not sure that I believe that you will be alright." That involuntary cry of pain the man had made certainly didn't help his case any, but Mars decided not to bring that part up at the moment.

"Mars, there is no choice. If we're caught, my current condition will matter little."

As much as she hated to admit it, her boss had a point. They couldn't afford to jeopardise the mission now.

"...fine. Redshift, put the illusion back up and follow me." The Illusion Fox Pokémon obeyed, and Mars pressed the power button on the computer to turn it off before walking towards the warp pad.

Soon enough, they were once again standing at the end of the hallway faced by the three warp panels. This time, Mars took the far one, which, as she remembered, led to Cyrus's office. As she ascended the final staircase leading to the top floor of the building, the red-haired woman tried to clear her mind from all the ways this trip was going (and could still go) wrong. She had to focus only on the goal.

At the top of the stairs, the first thing Mars noticed was that the lighted starry wallpaper was still turned on. She wondered if this was the case inside Cyrus's office too. Putting her trepidations aside, the commander swiped the keycard through the slot. The green light on the scanning apparatus flashed on, and the metal doors slid open.

The office was fairly dark with only the glowing wallpaper for light, although now that she thought about it, Mars could recall that her boss's office was always rather dark. It was still before dawn outside, judging by the windows on the back wall, which was at least one plus.

Mars spotted Cyrus's laptop on a small desk near the corner of the room. Approaching it, she could see that it, as well as the desk, was covered in a thick layer of dust. The red-haired woman opened the screen to find that the computer had been left on. The current screen displayed what appeared to be a document detailing general information about the Spear Pillar plan.

"Hmm." Mars tried clicking out of the application, but it was no use, the screen stayed on the same document. After trying several more actions, including using control/alt/delete and hitting the escape key, the display wouldn't change.

"I made it so… you have to- urgh! Just take me to the desk."

The red-haired woman jumped slightly before realizing that the voice coming from behind her was only Cyrus. She wasn't sure how bringing Cyrus to his desk would help too much, but was willing to try anything he might say at this point. After all, this was his office, so it would make sense that he would know how things worked around here.

"Right… Redshift, drop the illusion and place Cyrus at his desk."

The Zoroark obeyed, and Mars walked up next to her leader, watching as the blue-haired man feebly used his coat arm to dust off part of the desk. Then Cyrus placed his right palm over the keyboard, appearing to be trying to line his hand up with a sensor to the right of the keys. After several seconds of no success, Mars leaned in, placed her hand on her leader's wrist, and guided his hand to what appeared to be the right place.

Instantly, a quick, melodic beep sounded from the desk while a green light flashed directly to the left of Cyrus's hand, between the sensor and the keyboard. The man then leaned in a bit towards a spot slightly above the keyboard and fixed his gaze down at the desk. A few seconds later, another short sound came from the desk and another green light flashed, this time to the left of the keyboard.

"Looks like we're in!" Mars declared excitedly, before realizing that she had just spoken up rather loudly. Oops.

Regardless, the computer screen now showed what looked like a desktop, along with an assortment of clickable icons on top of a starry space background that had the "G" logo positioned in the center. The icons on the screen had names under them, but the names were completely unreadable, as if written in some sort of secret code.

"I assume this is the main screen, but I can't make heads or tails of it. The application names are all in gibberish. Maybe your computer got a virus while we were away?" Mars shook her head. To get this far, only to be stopped by a computer glitch. Now what?

"It's... intended that way. The application... is there somewhere."

Oh. So it was some sort of secret code that only Cyrus could read? Lovely. Now Redshift would have to bring Cyrus over to where Mars was so that he could point to the right application, given that he even remembered. Even then, judging by how awful he had been at hitting keys, it would probably be a wonder if he could even point at the right icon with his finger on the screen.

"Sir, what do you recommend we do from here? There are a good lot of icons, and reading them all to you would likely take too long." Plus Mars had no idea how to describe the characters, seeing as they were outside of the usual alphabet.

"You want the second icon from the… right, I believe. On the fourth row down. Yes, that should be- Agh!"

Those pained noises had to be an extremely bad sign. No, focus on the task, then worry about Cyrus's health. Fourth row down, second from the right... Mars moved the cursor over to the corresponding icon and double clicked on it.

With that, a new window opened on the screen. Was this the application that handled Cyrus's bank accounts? It looked more like an email inbox. There were a few emails from the last four years, but it seemed that most had been sent before the Spear Pillar incident. The more recent letters seemed to be wondering where Cyrus was and if he was still alive. There was even one from Mars herself, sent two years back in hopes that her leader had escaped Giratina and was once again in relative safety.

As for the earlier emails, most appeared to be business propositions, though there were what looked like a few death threats, as well as one dated weeks before Spear Pillar from the email address "CaelumAkagi " in it, titled "Please hear me out". Mars wondered if the sender was somebody from Cyrus's family, as they had the same last name as her boss. The email message was still unopened.

"Um, sir? I don't think this is the application we're looking for, unless you usually get to your bank accounts through a link in one of your emails."

The blue-haired man's eyes widened for a split second after Mars's statement.

"No, get out of that application now. It was the third row down, not the- guh! Fourth."

Just as Cyrus finished making his statement, the man nearly slipped sideways off of his seat, but thankfully was caught by a lightning-quick move by Redshift before he could hit the metal flooring.

Mars forced her attention back to the computer, clicking on the second icon on the third row. What popped up this time appeared much closer to what Mars had imagined Cyrus's banking application looking like. There were a lot of rows with numbers in them, but this time the text in the description rows and columns was actually readable.

After some clicking around, Mars had gotten the hang of how to use the banking program. She double clicked on an account with enough money in it to make Charon happy, and was then able to figure out how to transfer money to the address the old scientist had given her.

Soon enough, a window popped up on the screen stating that the transfer was complete. Mars was about to turn around and announce that the operation had been a success when the silence was instead broken by simultaneous cries from both Cyrus and Redshift. The blue-haired man's vocalization could easily be interpreted as a cry of pain, but the sound Redshift made was unmistakably one of surprise.

The red-haired woman's focus snapped back to Cyrus, who was still on the same chair being supported by Redshift. However, Mars slowly turned her head upon realizing that the two were both staring at the door they had come in from, dreading what she would see.

There was an all-too familiar figure standing in the doorway. Mars forced herself to talk.

"Saturn?"

"Mars?" The man in the doorway took a step forwards, then spoke again.

"I thought it might be you."


	14. Chapter 14

Notes: Chapter 14: In which Cryo "borrows" another one of BlackJack's headcanons

This chapter involves Cyrus not doing so hot, and gets a little bit dark.

Thanks to everyone for reading/supporting this fic!

The red-haired commander stared wordlessly at Saturn, unsure of exactly what to say. What could be said at this point? She figured that staying quiet for the moment was less likely to incriminate her further.

"It was a good try, Mars. Your plan was clever, but missed one important detail- the security cameras scattered around the base. I've been watching you the entire time. A grunt still in the old, optional Galactic attire, sneaking around early in the morning raised a few red flags."

Damn it! How did she forget about the cameras? How did she not notice them on the ceiling? ...well, it had been four years since she had last entered the base, and if she remembered correctly, the cameras were few and far between, and well-hidden to boot.

As for Saturn picking her out as a suspicious person... wait- did he say that the old grunt outfit was now optional? Another mistake, though how Mars was to know that Saturn had changed the uniforms was anyone's guess. But still, there was one thing Mars was wondering.

"What makes you think I'm Mars? How do you know that I'm not just any old grunt poking around?"

"I wasn't sure at first, although I had my suspicions. The reports on television about Charon being broken out of prison... I figured couldn't be the work of any ordinary grunt. At first I was confused as to why anyone would want to break Charon of all people out of jail, but when I saw Cyrus here... the pieces started to fall into place. When I heard you talk after I entered the room, I recognized your voice, confirming my original guess."

Well then. How was she supposed to get out of this one? Mars figured that it might be a good idea to figure out what Saturn's intentions were before making any rash decisions.

"You got me, congratulations. What do you want to do with me now?" Mars removed the turquoise grunt wig, which was useless at the moment.

"With you? Nothing. I have no qualms with letting you go. However, I'm afraid I can't let him go with you." Saturn pointed at the other blue-haired man in the room, who was now seated on the ground next to Redshift, who was crouching down.

"No, never! I went into the Distortion World itself, faced Giratina, and carried Cyrus out myself. I won't let you separate us again. I'll fight you with Redshift if I must." The red-haired woman adopted a fighting stance. She'd help her Pokémon by jumping into the match if it came down to it. Anything to protect the one person in her life that had ever made her feel worthwhile.

"I'm sorry, Mars." Saturn stepped forward a few paces, entering the room and leaving the doorway clear- except a couple of seconds later, the door was once again blocked, this time by a large frog-like Pokémon.

"Don't you dare! Just try to hurt Cyrus, and you'll regret ever being born." She considered commanding a Extrasensory from Redshift, that should take out Saturn's pet frog in an instant.

"Don't be rash, Mars, I'm not going to attack Cyrus. From the looks of it, the man needs to go to a hospital. I don't know what you were doing here, but I suggest you reorder your priorities." Saturn shook his head and walked farther into the room. Mars was about to stop him, but his Toxicroak blocked her way.

"Don't touch him, I'm warning you! Lay a finger on him and Redshift here will make you sorry." Despite the red-haired woman's threats, Saturn crouched down on the other side of Cyrus and put a hand on the man's shoulder.

"Out of my way, frog! Redshift, do something!" Mars exclaimed, darting around Toxicroak and over to Cyrus.

"Your Zoroark seems to have more sense than you. We need to get this man to a hospital. Now."

Finally taking her fiery gaze off of Saturn and focusing on her leader, it seemed as if Saturn had a point. Cyrus was now flat on his back, lying on the floor. He was conscious, but barely, and obviously still in a great amount of pain.

"But-" Mars responded, dropping to her knees, which hurt considerably on the metal flooring. "He'll go to prison! I won't let him suffer through that."

"Would you rather he die?" Saturn snapped back. "I have little respect for the man left, but I'd rather not have his blood be on our hands. He at least deserves a fair trial, does he not?"

"Fair trial? You've got to be kidding me, they'd throw him in for life in two seconds, so long as they don't choose to execute him instead. I- Saturn, please listen to me. He's already spent four years in that hell of a place I took him out from. He deserves another chance, not to be thrown into some fixed courtroom that's guaranteed to find him guilty."

"Give him another chance? A chance for what, manipulating people and trying to end the world? Think about it, you know exactly what he's capable of."

Mars wouldn't let Cyrus get taken away from her, and she wouldn't let him die, either. What could she do now, though? There had to be something... wait.

"I made a deal with Giratina! In order to get him out, I had to promise not to let him cause disaster. Otherwise, Giratina will come out of the Distortion World and kill him! Between the two of us, I'm sure we could help him make a better life for himself."

At Mars's words, Saturn closed his eyes for a few seconds and let out a sigh.

"Mars... you don't get it, if we don't call an ambulance, he's going to die. Is that what you really want?"

The red-haired woman glanced from Saturn to Redshift before fixing her eyes on the man lying on the floor. Would he really die? What else was there to do? Mars swallowed hard, then took a deep breath.

"There has to be another way. Surely you have some sort of medical contact that can save him without turning him in. I'm begging you..." Mars's voice cracked, her eyes tearing up. Upon noticing this, she quickly wiped her eyes with her hands.

"I'm sorry, Mars, I truly am. If only I had a different solution to this... though I do have some medical staff on call here, and the lab is stocked with supplies… no, it would be too risky. Calling the hospital is the safer bet… though I might be able to get my staff here first, I think a few of them are in the building right now, after that lab accident that happened today… you know what, Mars? I've got another plan."

A plan that didn't involve sending Cyrus to jail? Did he really have staff on call in the base? It almost seemed too good to be true.

"Mars, help your Pokémon keep an eye on him, I'm going to call some of my staff in, they've got a good deal of medical experience. If we need to send him to the hospital in order to save him, we will, and he may not be staying here for too long."

Saturn stood up, took out his cellphone, and started a call. Mars wanted to listen to what was being said, but she knew that Cyrus needed her more now.

"Cyrus sir..." Mars crawled up by his side and looked down at her leader's face. He was (somehow) still holding on to conscience, although his breathing was shallow and his face a shade of greyish-white that Mars hadn't seen since finding him in the Distortion World. She took another deep breath, forcing herself not to cry as best as she could.

"Urgh... Mars?" The man on the floor gazed up at her, his eyes trying to focus on her face, though the woman wasn't sure if he could actually see her clearly.

"I... I'm sorry. Everything failed because of me, and now I'm seeing you like this... I can't..." The red-haired woman's voice trailed off, too overcome with emotion to continue.

"Don't... let your... emotions… agh! I... I refuse to die."

"Stop talking, you'll only get worse... please, sir." The red-haired woman reached down, and put a hand near the back of his head. She knew she probably shouldn't do this, but couldn't help herself at the moment.

"You won't die, sir. I'm not going to let you."

Cyrus didn't react much to Mars's last comment, nor to Mars touching his hair. She couldn't lose him again, not after everything they had been through recently.

"Out of the way, Mars. Medical staff coming through!"

The voice that had just snapped Mars back to reality was one she hadn't heard yet tonight, but somehow it seemed oddly familiar.

"Get up, out of the way, get your dog to back off, too."

The red-haired woman didn't have too much time to think about who had been talking to her before she felt herself being picked up and dragged. Whoever had their grip on her then threw her aside, causing her to land painfully on the metal flooring of Cyrus's office and knocking her senseless for a few moments.

When the redhead had finally shaken herself out of her daze, she tried to see what was going on with Cyrus. However, the man lying on the floor had already been completely surrounded by the medical staff, making it very difficult for Mars to see exactly what was going on. All that she could tell was that the person who had thrown her backwards was now barking orders to the rest of the team.

Speaking of that person, the young red-haired woman knew that she had heard that voice somewhere. Looking at their back made it a little harder to tell, but Mars could swear she had seen that shade of purple hair before. Added to the fact that the person had known her name upon entering the room…

"Jupiter?"

Mars didn't get a response, but knew that the purple-haired staff member in front of her was certainly the same woman who had worked as a fellow commander under Cyrus before the Spear Pillar incident. Jupiter had also gone with Mars herself and Charon to Stark Mountain, where the two female commanders had abandoned Charon and split up and gone their separate ways.

For her to show up now, though? The red-haired woman hadn't expected that. Mars had seen Jupiter do medical work on the field seldomly when a grunt got injured, but for her to be leading a team of medics under Saturn? This was certainly a new development.

Even standing up wasn't giving Mars the view she wanted, and she couldn't exactly ask questions at the moment, but she was at least glad that Cyrus was getting medical help. Thinking about how close to death the man had seemed when Mars had been talking to him, however...

What if Jupiter's team was too late? What if they couldn't save him? Maybe the man was too far gone, and Mars wouldn't even be given a proper chance to say goodbye. Ugh, she felt so helpless. If there was only something she could be doing now, anything! But no, she was being crowded out and pushed away from him.

Before the redhead could further contemplate the hopelessness of the situation, she was once again being told to stand back. Now that Jupiter was standing to the side of Mars and giving directions to the crew, the young red-haired woman finally got to take a brief look at Cyrus before he was hauled away. He didn't look too much different from before, except now the man was hooked up to an assortment of medical equipment.

"If I may ask, what's wrong with- no, how is he- is he going to live? That's all I want to know."

At first, it didn't look like Mars was going to get an answer, with the group of medics moving out through the hallway on the east side of Cyrus's office. As far as Mars could remember, that hallway led to two warp panels- one that led straight to the most classified part of the laboratory (which had been used to house the lake trio as well as Galactic's more morally questionable experiments years back), and a one-way one that led to the ground floor of the building, near the entrance. Which one were they going to take Cyrus through? That would determine whether the man would be kept a secret, or sent out of the building and likely to the local hospital where Mars would probably never see him again.

However, right when Jupiter appeared to be about to head out of the room, she instead turned to Mars and signaled to the rest of the medical team to keep moving. The other woman's expression was solemn, and unlike anything Mars had seen before on her face.

"I don't know. We saved him from cardiac arrest for the moment, but... he's incredibly weak. We're taking him into the laboratory as there's more equipment there. I'll do what I can, Mars, but I can't make any guarantees." With that, the purple-haired woman turned around and followed her crew.

The redhead watched helplessly as the one person she cared about most was carted through the hallway and out of her sight. After everything that had happened... this was all her fault. If she hadn't brought him here tonight, maybe he could have recovered under her care. If she had only told Charon to wait a few weeks, or even taken the blue-haired man here while he was sleeping, maybe he wouldn't have gotten stressed to this point.

A hand on her shoulder made Mars look to the left, where Redshift was now standing. The Illusion Fox Pokémon was looking over at his trainer with a sorrowful expression.

"Don't worry, Reds, it wasn't your fault... it was mine. If I just hadn't- I should have- I-"

It was taking all of the resolve Mars had not to break down crying right at that moment. She bit her lip.

Footsteps on the metal flooring alerted the red-haired woman to the fact that Saturn had just walked up to her right.

"I'm sorry, Mars. I did what I thought was best, but…" Saturn sighed. "I know this is extremely difficult for you. It's hard on the three of us former commanders, trust me. I may not be crying, but that doesn't mean that I'm not upset. Jupiter may seem unaffected, but underneath her appearance of cold indifference... I know she cared- I mean cares- for him, too."

"No. You don't understand. I was there for him- I pulled him out of that hell without the help of the rest of Galactic. I cared for him, I... just for this, only to lose him again. You don't know my pain, you don't know anything! You'd have him die in that awful place instead!" Mars knew that getting angry wasn't going to solve anything, that it was against all Cyrus had taught her... but she couldn't help it. He was on the verge of dying, and she could do nothing. It was the worst feeling in the world.

"Mars, I... listen. I'm not going to argue with you right now. I'll leave you be, but first I want to say one thing. Is that okay?"

"What?" Mars demanded in response to Saturn's question. "Get it over with."

"If you'd like, you're welcome to stay here. Even though I'm trying to come clean, and harboring fugitives isn't exactly legal... well, I'm not going to turn down a friend in need. As for Cyrus, well, after all he's done... I'll let him stay so long as he behaves." Yeah, if he survived, which was very much questionable at the moment.

With that said, Saturn returned Toxicroak (who, Mars now realized, had been standing near the doorway in silence the whole time) and walked out of the office, closing the door behind him.

Now left in the dim light of Cyrus's glowing wallpaper, Mars returned Redshift and sank to the floor, sobbing.

More notes: ...okay, that was a pretty depressing cliffhanger, sorry all. I'm sure things will get better next chapter... maybe.

I hope you don't mind me borrowing your HCs, BlackJack, the opportunity to introduce Jupiter into the story like that was too perfect.


	15. Chapter 15

The hours passed, and nobody came back to the office to update Mars on the situation. She was tempted to go to the lab herself and see what was going on, but at the same time she almost didn't want to know. If the news was bad- if he was... maybe not knowing for the moment would be for the better. She didn't think she could handle it right now if she was told that he was dead.

The sun rose as the red-haired woman sat on the office floor. She was exhausted, but knew she couldn't sleep now. Not when Cyrus's fate was still up in the air, not when she could be called in at any moment to say goodbye. She needed to be there for him- and the fact that metal floor was nearly impossible to sleep on helped.

It wasn't until what looked like mid-morning that Mars saw somebody come in. However, it wasn't from the hallway where the warp panel was, but rather the front entrance. The red-haired woman half-jumped when she heard the sound of a key in the lock and the doors opening. She expected to see Saturn, but instead found herself looking up at a man dressed in a white coat.

He didn't acknowledge Mars's presence, but rather walked through Cyrus's office and into the hallway leading to the laboratory. Could this be a sign that Cyrus might still be alive? Or was this doctor (or at least Mars assumed he was one from the white coat and the dismissive attitude) simply here to pronounce the man dead?

Mars needed to find this out. Taking a deep breath and standing up, the red-haired woman dragged herself through the hallway and towards the laboratory warp panel.

The redhead arrived in the large room, which appeared to have been redecorated a fair bit in the last four years. Instead of experiments floating in stasis tubes, there were cardboard boxes filled with what appeared to be mostly scientific equipment with the occasional box of medical supplies mixed in. Near the other side of the room, there were some larger pieces of equipment, most of them covered in plastic sheets. A few plastic sheets lay on the floor in a pile, which Mars assumed was from the equipment that had just been used for Cyrus, or so the fresh fingerprints in the dust covering the sheets seemed to imply.

Finally, the red-haired woman arrived at the door to the second room of the hidden part of the lab. This was where the lake spirits had been kept, or so Mars remembered. She slid her cardkey through the lock, and the door opened.

Upon entering the somewhat small room, the first thing Mars noticed was that an assortment of machines was scattered about the room. Mars recognized some of them, such as an X-ray machine sitting against the wall and what looked like a machine used for ultrasound, but the function of most of the stuff here was beyond Mars's knowledge. Finally looking straight ahead to the other side of the room, the red-haired woman saw just what she expected to- a group of people gathered around what appeared to be a makeshift bed.

On the bed lay the man that the redhead so wanted to see- and yet was afraid to even glance at. Around him there were the backs of people Mars recognized. There was the white coat of the snobby doctor, as well as Jupiter and her team of medics. Saturn was absent, although that was no surprise as she hadn't seen him re-enter the office.

As Mars approached the group, a few people turned around to look at her, not including Jupiter or the doctor. One of the medics tapped Jupiter on the shoulder, finally causing the woman to turn around and face Mars. She must have been tired judging by the dark circles around her eyes, but Jupiter's posture and tone of voice did not reflect the slightest bit of fatigue.

"Mars. You should be glad to hear that Cyrus is still alive, and that we've got his condition at least somewhat stabilized. If he survives this- and that's a big 'if'- it's going to be a long, difficult and expensive recovery, given he even can recover at all. Otherwise, he'll be bed-ridden the rest of his life, though you may be able to push him around in a wheelchair eventually in that case. We've just been keeping him alive, but now we have a doctor here to run some tests to try and find out exactly what's wrong with him and how likely recovery is."

Upon hearing this, Mars wasn't sure exactly what she was supposed to think. Cyrus was alive, but...

"I- I..." the red-haired woman stammered, not entirely sure what to say at the moment.

"It's a lot to take in, I know." Jupiter gestured to one of the medics standing in front of Cyrus to move away, making room for the redhead to step up. "Listen, Mars. I know we got off on the wrong foot yesterday, and I'm sorry. I was under pressure, and... look. If you're going to be staying here like Saturn told me over the phone, I figure we might as well start getting along."

"Yeah." Mars nodded, not entirely sure if she could really trust her fellow commander or not. Jupiter didn't sound completely genuine to Mars, but then again, knowing Jupiter, that was probably just her mannerism.

"I'd shake hands, but that might not be the best idea at the moment." Jupiter briefly showed Mars her gloved hands, which were stained with flecks of blood and who knew what else. "If you want to see Cyrus, which is what I assume you came for, step up. Although if I'm mistaken or you're having second thoughts, I completely understand."

"I do want to see him," was Mars's response. As hard as this was, the red-haired woman was determined to prove to Jupiter (and herself) that she was strong enough to be here. Besides, the redhead wasn't about to let Cyrus down by being absent when he needed her. Not now, not ever.

"Then come." Jupiter motioned for Mars to step forward. The red-haired woman obeyed, bracing herself slightly. Sure, she had seen him a few hours before, but something about this felt different. Maybe it was what Jupiter had said about him possibly not getting better?

Well, if there was one thing that was for sure, it was that the man didn't really look much better than he had a few hours ago. The only difference Mars could immediately see was that he was no longer conscious. His skin was, for the most part, the same clammy grey color it had been before. Exactly how thin he was once again hit Mars now that he didn't have blankets or the coat covering him, what with how easily she could count each of his ribs.

A few of the cuts and scrapes from the Distortion World had opened again with Mars's bandages now off, explaining how blood had gotten on Jupiter's gloves. The deep injury on his arm where Mars had removed the red shard now looked infected. She must not have used enough antibacterial cream on it.

Looking desperately for a silver lining, it did seem that the man's breathing was a good deal more even and less shallow. Of course, that might just have been because of the oxygen mask attached to his face, but Mars was taking good news wherever she could find it.

"So, um... what are the plans for what to do next? If I may ask," Mars questioned.

"Well, now that we have a doctor here, we are going to try and figure out exactly what's wrong with him and what we can do to allow him to recover." Jupiter shooed Mars back a bit and glanced over at the doctor, as if waiting for him to give further direction. A few minutes later, the man in the white coat spoke up.

"I have a few suspicions as to what is likely wrong with him, but I would rather run several tests first to know for sure before making a diagnosis. Get the ultrasound machine ready, and set up the X-ray machine so that it's functional as well. I want a blood and a urine sample taken while I finish writing up my observations, and make sure to get the results of the tests to me as soon as humanly possible. Jupiter, make sure your staff are following my orders, and fast."

"Yes sir."

Mars could detect the slightest bit of resentment in her former fellow commander's voice. The redhead wouldn't be surprised if Jupiter was already missing being in charge.

"You."

Mars nearly jumped when the doctor turned around to address her. Frankly, she had been starting to think she was invisible to him.

"Yes?"

"I can't have you around here if you're not one of Saturn's medical staff. I ask you to please leave the room."

The doctor pointed at the door. However, before Mars could turn around to leave, Jupiter stopped ordering her staff around and spoke to the red-haired woman.

"I'm sorry, but I advise you listen to the doctor, Mars. Though I want you to know that we're doing the best we can to save Cyrus. How about this- you come back in a few hours- say four or five- and if things have settled down in here the doc or I will give you an update. I'll call in Saturn at that time, too, I'm sure he's going to want to be involved as well."

Mars nodded at Jupiter's words and headed out of the room and into the main room of the long abandoned laboratory. What was she supposed to do now? Spend some more time waiting alone in Cyrus's office? It wasn't as if she could leave the base at the moment, right?

Or could she? Mars suddenly remembered about her deal with Charon. What was that old buzzard up to now? Plotting to run off with her Pokémon and her money? What of Cyrus's Pokémon? Mars assumed that they suffered ill effects from the Distortion World, too. Oh, and the van, not to mention all of Mars's possessions, including that necklace that Charon said he'd return.

It seemed like Mars owed her old apartment one last trip. Hopefully she would get there before Charon could pull a fast one on her, though she kind of doubted that he'd be there when she returned. Still, she figured that she might as well try calling the apartment's landline just in case.

The red-haired woman pulled out her phone and made a call back to the apartment. One ring, two rings, three rings...

Nobody picked up, as expected. This would make it somewhat difficult to find her way back, seeing as Charon had the van last and she was on the other side of town. Not to mention that it was frigid cold outside, and judging by looking out of Cyrus's office window, it was also snowing.

Maybe she should ask Saturn for a ride with one of the grunts? Nah, Mars was determined to do this herself. Besides, she didn't want to tell Saturn about her deal with Charon, at least not yet. Though she guessed that the blue-haired former commander would inevitably ask at some point.

Eventually, Mars decided to take a taxi. There was still pocket money in her coat (which Redshift had been carrying along with Cyrus, and had left in Cyrus's office around the time Saturn had walked in), which thankfully was exactly where the Zoroark had left it, along with her green grunt wig, which was still sitting on the floor close by.

After standing out in the freezing cold for a good fifteen minutes, Mars finally managed to hail a taxi. She didn't have the driver drop her off right at her apartment, but rather a good few blocks away. This was much safer, and she could walk the distance without too much trouble.

Soon enough, the lock clicked open on the apartment door, and in came Mars. Predictably enough, there was no sign of Charon still being present. There was, however, a note sitting on the floor, on top of the redhead's sleeping bag. It was hand-written, and the words were slightly difficult to read as if the note had been written hastily, but she could still discern the words well enough.

" _Mars-_

 _By the time you end up reading this, I'll (hopefully) be well on my way to a new life, albeit however short. You should be happy to know that I received the funds you and Cyrus sent. I have enclosed your collateral in your sleeping bag, and your other possessions are still somewhere around the room. Frankly, I'm slightly amazed at all you managed to pull off in the last few months, from breaking me out of jail to getting me my retirement money. You're clever (though not quite on my level yet), and I sometimes wonder what a perfectly intelligent person like you is doing still following a now washed-up, delusional idiot like Cyrus. Though then I recall the folly of youth and young love, and it all makes sense again. Anyway, that was neither here nor there, and I have to be going._

 _-your old pal Charon_

 _P.S. I hope you don't mind me permanently borrowing the van, but I'm sure you can afford a much nicer new one with your boss's old funds. I took out your possessions and left them in this room, so don't freak out about that, either."_

Tossing aside the note and checking in the sleeping bag, Mars found her gold locket along with nine Pokéballs- her remaining four Pokémon and Cyrus's five. Well, at least the old man had kept his word in the end... kind of.

Mars gathered up all of her possessions from around the apartment and sorted them neatly in the center of the room. The items that were the most valuable (or useful) to her were loaded into the backpack she had brought to Sendoff Spring (except for the locket and her Pokémon- the locket went back around her neck and her Pokémon back on her belt). The tiny mysterious shard was thankfully right where she had put it. That went into the backpack too, in a hard-to-find pocket.

Telling herself that she would come back to pick up the rest of her belongings later, Mars put on her coat and a new wig on her head, then headed out with the backpack to hail another ride.

When she arrived back in the smaller secret laboratory room, Mars found that Saturn was already there. Jupiter was standing next to Saturn and talking to him, while the doctor was flipping through notes on his clipboard. Mars wondered why he didn't just use a phone or tablet, but he wasn't all that young and probably preferred to do things the traditional way.

Cyrus was once again near the back of the room, though by this time it seemed that Saturn's team had found a real bed for the former leader to lay in. It didn't look more comfortable than your average hospital bed, but at least it was something.

The sick blue-haired man was out but at least still breathing, which Mars took as a blessing for the moment, even though it wasn't without that oxygen mask. The man's skin did seem to be less grey-looking, although he was still extremely pale.

"So um, is there anything to report?" the redhead questioned in the direction of Jupiter, Saturn and the doctor, hoping that at least one of them would hear and answer her question.

"Actually, there is." It was Jupiter that spoke up before turning to the doctor to let him speak.

The doctor finally looked up from his notes and glanced at the three former commanders, and then around the room before speaking.

"Yes, we have found some valuable information during the last few hours. I'll try to keep it simple, as I know Jupiter here would understand the jargon, but not so much you two." The doctor gestured towards Saturn and Mars.

"Good. We are ready." Saturn replied.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16, in which Redshift continues to be a medical drama (but don't worry, there is a good bit of overall plot development in this chapter too).

Sorry for the lack of recent updates, writer's block has been a pain.

Mars listened carefully as the doctor explained what was afflicting the man she couldn't afford to lose. He explained how her leader's extended stay in another world had to be responsible for physically weakening the blue-haired man to a point where he couldn't properly function. According to the doctor, there was certainly a chance of recovery- so long as Cyrus's major organs didn't give out on him in the meantime.

The man in the white coat then reiterated what Jupiter had told Mars earlier- when Saturn's medical team had first treated Cyrus, they had come just in time to save Galactic's former leader from having a heart attack. The doctor continued to say that it could still very well happen, and that they would have to take extra care to closely monitor the blue-haired man for any signs.

Once the three former commanders had been informed of what was wrong with Cyrus, the doctor moved onto steps for recovery. The blue-haired man would have to be watched at all times, at least for the first few months. Medical professionals, preferably including a doctor, would need to be on call if anything went amiss. Saturn expressed concern about how this would work monetarily, but Mars brought up the accounts she and Cyrus now had access to, which should more than cover the cost.

According to the doctor, the path to recovery would have to, along with a good few surgeries, include a very specific high-nutrient diet as well as regular exercise that would increase in demands over time. Unfortunately, as far as Mars knew, Cyrus had never been so careful about having a proper diet (or eating enough food period) or getting enough exercise. Convincing him to do both would certainly not be easy.

"Now... Mars, was it?" The red-haired woman jumped slightly as the doctor addressed her. She hadn't been expecting her name to come up in the discussion. What did the man in the white coat have to say to her?

"...yes?"

"Are you feeling alright?"

What kind of question was that? Though now that somebody had mentioned it, the red-haired woman was feeling a bit light-headed. Maybe she should... no, she couldn't rest until she was confident that Cyrus was doing better. She couldn't just leave him to go take a nap.

"I'm perfectly fine. Why do you need to ask?"

"If you're sure, then. Still, maybe you should sit down for a while." The doctor glanced over at Jupiter and Saturn, most likely for verbal support.

"Mars, it's just- you don't look very well." Jupiter looked... almost concerned?

"You've been here over twenty-four hours, and I've got the sense that you didn't get a chance to sleep at all. Sit down, I'll have another bed brought in." Saturn remarked, shaking his head.

"I..." Mars glanced from the other two commanders to the doctor, and then over to where Cyrus was lying, currently under the watch of several medics. "I can't... Not until he..." Mars gestured towards her fallen leader.

"It's okay, Mars. We'll keep a close watch on him. You need to rest."

"No, Jupiter, Cyrus needs..." Suddenly, everything was looking slightly blurry, as if it were being put through a filter. Mars staggered forward, determined not to let Cyrus out of her sight. However, it was becoming clear that she was quickly losing her balance.

"Mars!"

She vaguely heard Jupiter and Saturn call out in unison, but the red-haired woman was already falling. The last thing she could interpret seeing was Jupiter, who had been standing a short distance away, running towards her. Everything faded after that.

"Ugh..." Slowly opening her eyes, Mars found herself staring at a rather familiar ceiling. It was the same one that had been in Galactic's laboratory room, right? Though how could that be- she had left the organization years ago. Her head hurt.

...oh, right. Mars had been sneaking herself and Cyrus into the base to get money to Charon. Then- that's right. Cyrus has collapsed, and Mars had been too concerned for his well-being to consider her own.

"Mars!"

The red-haired woman lifted her head off of the pillow that was under it to find Jupiter walking towards her while holding a glass of water.

"Here, drink some water first. You really need to be more careful, as important as Cyrus is to you, you need to be concerned about your own well-being as well. You're lucky that I was able to catch you."

"Thanks..." Mars replied, sitting up and taking the glass from Jupiter. Once she had finished drinking, she got ready to ask the question that was burning in her mind, but Jupiter answered it first.

"Cyrus is doing relatively well, he's still on the other side of this room. He hasn't woken up yet, but I can guess that he'll be regaining conscience in a few hours. But you should rest, staying up that long while dehydrated was not one of your smarter maneuvers."

A quick glance to the back of the room and Mars had spotted Cyrus in the same bed as before. He looked a good deal better than he had earlier, or at least as far as Mars could tell. She had to be there next to him! If he woke up and Mars wasn't by his side... No, that wasn't going to happen. She had been there for him the whole time, and she wasn't about to let herself fail him now.

"Cyrus... I have to..." Mars started to get out of bed and rush to her leader's side.

"Wait! You need to rest, Mars. Cyrus shouldn't wake up for at least another hour. At least lie down for that long."

The red-haired woman paid no heed to Jupiter's request. She stood up and quickly made her way to the blue-haired man's side.

"Cyrus, I'm here for you." Mars knew that it was very unlikely that Cyrus could hear her at the moment, but even so, she felt as if her words were helping somehow.

As it turned out, Jupiter had been right- the blue-haired man did not wake for what had to be at least a few hours. Mars, however, did not leave his side. Groups of medical staff entered and exited the room, checking up on Cyrus routinely. Jupiter stayed to keep watch, though if it was only for Cyrus or out of concern for Mars as well remained unclear.

Finally, after what seemed like far too long, the blue-haired man started to stir. Mars, who had been sitting down on a chair while watching him, stood up and knelt beside his bed.

"Ugh..." The man groaned, slowly opening his eyes.

"Cyrus..." Mars smiled, trying her best not to let herself cry.

Pale blue eyes stared up at the red-haired woman as she struggled to keep her composure. He was still alive, and there was a chance that he would get better. Moreover, Saturn had volunteered to let the two fugitives stay in their old base. It was almost too good to be true.

"What... what happened? Where am I? ...are we still in the base? What's going on?" Cyrus suddenly seemed to realize that he was now in a hospital gown and hooked up to an intravenous drip and several machines. He appeared a bit disdainful of this new revolution, Mars knew that he had always hated having medical work done on him. Hopefully he would realize that if he wanted to live, he would have to cooperate.

His expression was more than one of disdain, though. Cyrus also looked slightly... fearful? Could that be? It wasn't quite as severe as back when Mars had offered him pills, but she could still detect a trace of that expression.

Why would he be fearful, though? Well, there were a lot of possible reasons, though Mars wouldn't have expected them to phase Cyrus. Or maybe he was finally realizing what bad shape he was in and the implications of his possible death. It could also be that he wasn't sure that this was Team Galactic's base, and thought he might be in a hospital. It wasn't just that he hated hospitals, there was also the fact that this would mean that he had been turned into authorities.

"Don't be concerned, Cyrus, you're still in your old headquarters. I convinced Saturn not to turn you in, and now his medical team is keeping you alive."

As Cyrus looked back at Mars, she could no longer see any hint of fear on his face. It seemed that her statement had calmed his worries. Well, either that or he had realized what he was expressing and forced his face to look more neutral.

"Good. What happened earlier once I lost consciousness? Why is there a need for all of these machines?"

"Cyrus sir... you almost... I mean… you're in really bad shape. I... I was worried that you wouldn't make it after what happened in your office. To answer your question, Saturn was going to call an ambulance to take you away, but I convinced him to contact his medical team instead. Jupiter's leading it. Or... was leading it, I'm not so sure now that a doctor was called in. Anyway, you're alive now, and the doctor said that you can get better if we all make an effort."

The blue-haired man closed his eyes, apparently considering all Mars had just said. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked back at Mars.

"Jupiter has returned here? That is... interesting. Where is she now?"

"Right there on the other side of the room. You can see her there, right?" Mars frowned. Jupiter wasn't hidden, or even all that far away. Was Cyrus having vision problems? Come to think of it, he seemed to be having problems seeing earlier as well, when he was looking at the computer monitor.

"Mars, he most likely can't see me. It's probably from the unusual gravity in the Distortion World, but don't worry, we'll have him treated. I'm sure the fact that he doesn't have his contacts on doesn't help, either." Jupiter paced forward until she was standing in front of Cyrus's bed, next to Mars.

"Contacts? Cyrus doesn't wear contacts." What did Jupiter mean? In all the years Mars had known the man, she had never seen him put on contacts. Besides, wouldn't she notice them at some point just by looking at his eyes? Then again, her face may never have been close enough to his for her to tell.

"I wouldn't have guessed he wore them either, at least not before Saturn and I found several cases while cleaning out Cyrus's old bedroom. Guess he didn't want people to know he had less than perfect vision. At any rate, I need to quickly check-up on him now that he's awake. Feel free to keep talking to him while I'm at it though, Mars."

As Jupiter went to move a cart stocked with medical tools over from the other side of the room, Mars once again saw a trace of emotion on her leader's face. This time, however, he looked more uncomfortable and tense than fearful this time around. Maybe Mars should say something reassuring to him.

"Don't worry, Cyrus sir. This check-up will be over before you know it, and I'm sure Jupiter's not going to do anything too intrusive. You can relax, it will make this even easier." The red-haired woman smiled at her boss, who, despite the fact that most of the tension had seemed to disappear from his face, probably hadn't found much comfort in her words.

The blue-haired man didn't reply verbally, but instead shot Mars what appeared to be a skeptical glare. Maybe changing the subject would be a better idea.

"Listen, master Cyrus. I'm willing to go to the ends of the galaxy for you, and that won't ever change. I only want to help you, as always. I followed you, believing fully that your new world would be everything I want, too. I believed that I would belong there, and that we would achieve it in the end. I still believe in you, and I'll do anything for you- granted that the action is for the best. For your best."

Cyrus returned her words with a harsh glare. Whether he could see her well now or not, the expression came across loud and clear. It seemed that he had guessed what Mars's next line would be, and was staring at her until she gave in.

However, Mars was in no frame of mind to just look down and apologise for what she had been about to say. She stared right back into her leader's eyes, willing him to understand that Mars was truly doing what was for the best.

It was at this point that Jupiter returned with the tool cart, which appeared to have been stocked with more tools than it had been before. Mars was glad for the momentary interruption, whereas the blue-haired man looked far less than pleased.

"All right. I just need to run a few quick tests on you, Cyrus. It should be rather painless, especially considering the meds we have you on. Though first I need to take a blood sample from you." As Jupiter gingerly lifted Cyrus's arm and tied on an elastic band, the man stared up at the purple-haired woman. The expression on his face was rather hard to read, even considering that this was Cyrus.

As Jupiter collected the vials and placed them on the cart, the red-haired woman breathed a sigh of relief to herself. It seemed that she wouldn't have to continue the discussion with Cyrus about her loyalty, or at least not until he was no longer preoccupied with Jupiter running tests on him.

Unfortunately, the blue-haired man had seemingly decided that the topic couldn't wait. While Jupiter appeared to be looking for something on the cart, he finally spoke up.

"Mars. You know how much your loyalty means to me. I have counted on your unwavering support in the past, and I will expect to see it in the future, too." The man stopped speaking, eyes flicking to Jupiter, who was still occupied with the cart.

There was no question in the red-haired woman's mind as to why Cyrus had stopped talking. It had to be that the man didn't know how much was safe to say around Jupiter. He would probably wait to talk to her once he and Mars were alone in the room together.

However, the topic wasn't going to wait. Mars had just finally worked up enough bravery to confront her boss directly, and she wasn't going to waste the opportunity. Besides, Cyrus had a much better chance of intimidating her if the two of them were alone.

"Cyrus sir, I have no intention of undermining you, and as painful as it is for me to disobey any of your commands, I'm going to have to step in here. The result of your last attempt at creating your new world very nearly killed you, on multiple fronts. You're- we're lucky that you are alive today. What you did, however noble, was at a terrible risk to your life."

The blue-haired man went from looking at what Jupiter was doing back to glaring at Mars. He may not have been able to contradict her verbally at the moment, but the coldness in his eyes spoke volumes.

How dare she break his orders! After all he had done for her, how could she just disobey him like that? Cyrus had no tolerance for disobedience, and was telling his most loyal follower that there would be harsh consequences for going astray from his wishes.

Still, the man's inferred threats were completely empty at the moment. He had nowhere else to go, and nobody to follow him if he did. At the moment, he had no means of controlling the situation and going back to his old plans. Mars fully intended to exploit this fact in order to help her change his mind.

Sure, the man was stubborn, and he did seem completely fixated on his plans to remake the world. Still, Mars had a feeling that deep down, there was a part of Cyrus that wanted to make things right without committing such destruction. He had always tried to hide what he was truly feeling, making claims such as "emotions are weakness" and "mankind is fatally flawed by the nature of spirit".

However, it was painfully obvious that the man did have emotions, and strong ones at that. He was surely capable of feeling anything that Mars, or anybody else could. She had even seen his softer side on occasion, such as back at the apartment. She would be willing to stake a bet that, despite the rigid determination to erase mankind's flaws through drastic measures and apparent lack of concern for the consequences, Cyrus somehow knew that taking away human spirit was not the answer.

The red-haired commander was sure of the fact that Cyrus really only wanted to help the world, but was just far too stubborn to admit when he was wrong. Mars had faith that she could find this desire to do the right thing, she just needed time to show him that yes, there was another way. Sure, he had committed some pretty atrocious acts, and so had she in her blind faith to the man, but maybe they could somehow find redemption... together.

"Sir, I beg you to hear me out. Nothing good for you, or anybody else, will come out of taking on reality itself. I'm terribly afraid that it might be an unwinnable battle."

Mars would lead the man into a far more achievable victory in a fight against his true greatest enemy- himself. While more achievable than altering reality to his will, it would still take all of his strength to win freedom from his own harmful thoughts. It would be hard on Mars, too- however, she was fully willing to step forward and give all she had to convince Cyrus that life on this earth could be worthwhile. He would never be alone- not if Mars could help it.

Still, this journey would have to be taken one step at a time. It would start with Mars laying out the consequences of taking further action towards achieving Cyrus's goals.

"Remember how I told you that Giratina briefly possessed you while we were in the Distortion World together? Well, while it was speaking through you, it made me make a promise in order to save your life. I had to promise that I wouldn't let you mess with spacetime and create a new world. If I go back on that promise... Giratina will once again come out, but this time to take your life. I can't lose you like that- and I know that you would not want that to be your fate, either."

At this, the blue-haired man finally stopped glaring at Mars, but didn't focus his attention back to Jupiter this time. Instead, he appeared to have that distant look in his eyes, the same one that she had witnessed in the apartment when Charon had first talked to Cyrus.

She wondered what exactly he was thinking, could her words have had some effect on him? Maybe he realized that he had no choice but to take a different path. Could this be the first step on the way to redemption? Or was Mars just getting ahead of herself?

"All done! I'll leave you two alone until the next medical staff member comes in for their shift. Just make sure to call us immediately if Cyrus's condition worsens, or there is any sign that he needs medical attention." Jupiter, who seemed to be finished with her checking up of Cyrus, pushed the medical supply cart to the side of the room and headed out.

Part of Mars wanted to beg Jupiter to stay- part of her was concerned, even afraid, that the blue-haired man would once again seize control of the situation once the purple-haired commander left. Yes, Mars was willing to put her complete trust in Cyrus, and there was nobody that she'd rather be with than him... but somehow, there was a part of her that was afraid of the man. Possibly not only afraid of just his disapproval, but his icy attitude as well, the cold, merciless man that was capable of not only controlling him, but Mars as well.

Still, if anybody was going to melt the ice, it would be Mars. She was strong, and she wasn't going to let her emotions cloud her vision and allow fear to take over.

However, looking over at Cyrus's face, his gaze didn't seem cold at all as he turned his attention to her. Was this the Cyrus that Mars had been looking for the whole time? It seemed as if her words- along with maybe even her will to help Cyrus change, had brought out the man's better side.

"Yes, Mars," Cyrus began, closing his eyes. "I understand your point. If I continue to incur the gods' wrath, there will certainly be consequences. However, I do not think that there is any other path that I can choose. Still, despite my beliefs, I am willing to give the option of living here peacefully a try, even if redemption is out of the question. After all, I'm faced with no choice."

The blue-haired man opened his eyes again, and gazed back at Mars. He wasn't exactly smiling, but he wasn't glaring harshly, either. Could it be that the man was really willing to cooperate?

"You don't have a choice, Cyrus."

Mars spun around, startled by the voice of a person she didn't think had been in the room.

"Saturn," Cyrus remarked rather flatly.


	17. Chapter 17

Sorry for the delay, here's chapter seventeen! Now with slightly less medical drama and more interpersonal drama.

Saturn was there? How long had he been watching them? What had he heard?

"I decided to check in between Jupiter's shift and the next medic's. It's not because I don't trust Mars to watch over you, Cyrus. I came here because Jupiter mentioned that you were up to your old tricks again. Mars saved you from the Distortion World, you'd either be still trapped or dead if it wasn't for her. She took care of you to the best of her ability, and it's because of her that you're still breathing. You owe her your life, Cyrus."

The older blue-haired man stared back at Saturn. The younger man, however, did not seem to be intimidated by his old boss's glare.

"I let you stay here, so I expect you to behave. If you don't, well... I'm sure the hospital would be willing to take care of you, but don't expect them to treat you well. To the rest of the world, you're a dangerous, psychotic maniac with no regard whatsoever for the lives or well-being of others. To me? You're a manipulative snake, which is barely any better. Still, I'm going to shelter you here for Mars's sake. Just watch yourself."

Cyrus continued to glare at Saturn while the younger man spoke. After Saturn was finished, however, Cyrus's expression changed, his lips curving upwards in a smirk. Mars knew that smile on the older blue-haired man's face couldn't be for nothing- he was more than ready for a comeback.

"Still haven't gotten over being left back at base during the Spear Pillar operation? Or are you just afraid that I'll take my job back? You know nothing of my intentions, and you know even less of how to run this company. Oh, and don't pretend that I'm a horrible monster and that you're so above me. You've never been one to take the moral high ground, Saturn. You helped me every step of the way."

This time it was Saturn who was doing the glaring, while Cyrus still appeared smug. Mars, on the other hand, was just worried. If Cyrus kept antagonizing Saturn, he'd be kicked out for sure. It didn't really matter who won the argument, Saturn was the one with the cards. What was Cyrus playing at? Didn't he see that he was angering his only ticket to staying out of prison?

"You talk big for a half-dead, washed up failure, Cyrus. Are you trying to damn yourself, or is this some part of another one of your elaborate plans? Regardless, you're making a bad move. Oh, and don't think that I'm claiming to be perfect. I've made some seriously grave errors in the past, and have done more than my fair share of harm. Though at least I've owned up to my mistakes, and even though that won't change the past or automatically redeem me, it's more than I can say for you."

At this point, the confident smirk had disappeared from Cyrus's face, replaced by what was unmistakably a expression of sheer anger. It seemed that something Saturn said had been successful in striking a nerve. This was bad, it appeared that both men were really at each other's throats. Something had to be done.

"Stop! Both of you!" Mars stood up and stepped between Galactic's old leader and its new one. Glancing at Cyrus, it seemed that the man had already opened his mouth to speak, but thankfully Mars's intervention had stopped him from whatever he was going to say, or at least for the moment.

"Mars, don't let this man control you. He's dangerous, and from what I've seen here, he's just toying with your emotions. As for you, Cyrus... you're treading on thin ice. Try to keep that in mind before you say something you'll regret."

A nervous glance over at Cyrus revealed that the man, despite his current lack of verbal retaliation, was not successfully calming himself down. Teeth bared behind the oxygen mask he was wearing, it appeared that the older man was just barely biting back a reply. Neither man was going to try and cool the situation down at this point. That was up to Mars.

"Master Cyrus, please don't take this any further. We need to stay here, we've got nowhere else to go, and with your current condition... I'm sure this can be worked out, we just need to talk calmly and civilly. Nothing will be accomplished by getting angry, you should know that more than anybody else."

It appeared that at least some of Mars's words had gotten through to the older blue-haired man, as he had now closed his eyes. The grimace was still visible on his face, but Cyrus certainly seemed to be attempting to calm himself down. How odd that it was Mars trying to help Cyrus regain control of his emotions, before it had always been the other way around.

"Okay, Cyrus sir, you need to breathe. Don't let your anger get the better of you." At the red-haired woman's latest comment, a look of realization seemed to dawn on her leader's face. The man took a deep breath, seemingly a good deal calmer than a few moments before.

However, the victory appeared to be rather short-lived once Cyrus's gaze again fixed upon Saturn. When this occurred, the older blue-haired man's eyes narrowed, and he seemed to be about to come up with another comeback.

"Cyrus sir, look at me. I know you can do this, you're so much better than that." Mars started to stare determinately at Cyrus, willing him to stay in control of his emotions, just like he had taught her to do.

The man next to Mars suddenly switched his icy gaze over to her. The red-haired woman flinched slightly- it was the same glare that he had used rarely back in his Team Galactic whenever somebody had made a huge mistake. The man's usual stare was cold enough, but this one contained an emotion that Cyrus rarely showed- anger.

That glare usually preceded drastic measures from Cyrus, which had usually ended in at least several people being fired. Would he dismiss her? Would he do that to his last loyal supporter? Still, Saturn had not let himself be intimidated by the other man's gaze, and Mars couldn't afford to let herself back down, either. If Cyrus kept this up, he would surely ruin his chance at a new life.

However, the man's eyes soon widened as Cyrus quickly put a hand to his chest.

"Cyrus sir!" Mars cried out in alarm. It seemed as if the man was having trouble breathing.

"Master Cyrus, please think of your health! You almost had a heart attack a few hours ago, getting angry at Saturn is not what you need to be doing right now!" Mars placed a hand on Cyrus's shoulder. It was a risky move, but she hoped that it might bring Cyrus back to earth so that he could focus on what she was saying.

Thankfully, the man didn't look too upset at Mars's physical contact. Although, that may only have been because he was too focused on trying to breathe properly. It was then that the red-haired woman noticed that between her leader's sitting up and yelling at Saturn, the oxygen mask on his face had gone slightly askew.

"Cyrus, sir, let me fix that mask for you, doing so should help you breathe." It was slightly difficult to align the mask back on her leader's face perfectly, but after a few seconds of trial and error, she managed to achieve the task.

Once the mask was in place, the man's breathing slowly became more steady. Once it appeared that Cyrus was breathing more or less evenly, the red-haired woman figured it was finally a good time to ask if he was okay.

"Master Cyrus, are you feeling alright? Do you want me to get one of Saturn's medical staff?"

"I am fine, Mars. Do not worry yourself." Somehow, Mars wasn't convinced. However, it was Saturn that spoke next. The red-haired woman had almost forgotten that he was still in the room.

"She has a point, Cyrus. You're not well, and you need to be careful about your health, just like Mars is doing for you. Besides, you need to remember that you are here on my good graces, so watch your tongue as well. It looks like the next of our medic team is here, so I'm going to go back to working on running this place."

Saturn turned around and began to leave the room, walking around somebody who indeed appeared to be one of his medical staff. A few feet from the door, however, he seemed to have decided on one last comment.

"Cyrus, I'm dead serious about what I told you earlier. You will not hurt or manipulate Mars on my watch. She's here to help you change, and frankly, I think that her loyalty is more than you deserve. We're giving you another chance, and if you want my continued support, you're going to have to earn it. You can start by treating Mars with respect, and the false act you've been giving her is not going to cut it."

With that, Saturn turned back towards the door and left the room.

What was mostly silence followed Saturn's departure. Even the medic in the room only spoke when absolutely necessary while he checked Cyrus over. What was that expression about cutting tension with a knife?

Well, one thing was for sure, and it was that the lack of talking was making Mars anxious. How long was this going to last? Should she just go back to sleep and hope that the room's atmosphere had calmed by the time she woke up?

No, that would involve leaving her leader's side. No matter how stressed she was, Mars refused to back out from the spot and leave Cyrus to his uncertain fate. Whether the man's condition would remain stable was completely up in the air, and the red-haired woman would stay by him no matter what. She had a feeling that if Cyrus did end up surviving, he would need all of the help she could give him to recover. If he didn't- well, Mars decided not to dwell on the worst-case scenario at the moment.

What the red-haired commander needed to focus on now was changing the emotional atmosphere of the room. If she could somehow bring up another subject, maybe the tension could be dissolved? She needed to take the blue-haired man's mind off of his resentment towards his successor.

What should she bring up? Something typical like the weather wasn't going to cut it, plus there was only so much to say about snow falling. Anything related to their current situation was out of the options, that had been what started the argument in the first place. As for discussing the future? A terrible idea, especially seeing as they weren't sure Cyrus would even have a future.

That left one chronological option- the past. Thinking about it now, she realized that she knew absolutely nothing of Cyrus's life before she had joined Team Galactic years back. Would he remember, though, even after his stay in the Distortion World? Still, his memory of what Galactic had been did come back after some time, so there was no logical reason as to why he wouldn't remember the rest of his life.

Of course, Mars wasn't going to just ask the man about his past out of nowhere. She figured that it would probably be better if she gave some of her history first. As far as she could recall, Cyrus didn't actually know too much of her life before Galactic other than what she had said on her application and interview. It was doubtful that her leader would remember that information anyway.

If she began with her story, how she had lived before being hired into Team Galactic had saved her, maybe Cyrus would be inclined to share his story. If not? Then she wouldn't pester him about it and the topic would still have been changed. It seemed like a win-win.

Mars began by clearing her throat. It seemed to have worked, as the blue-haired man in the bed next to where she was sitting turned his neck to the right and focused his eyes on her instead of the ceiling. This was her chance.

"Master Cyrus, I was just thinking... I've worked under you for so long, but we still don't know all that much about each other." Mars decided to stop speaking and gauge the man's reaction before continuing on the topic.

"We know each other sufficiently enough. It is difficult to work with another person for years and not be very aware of their character." The blue-haired man appeared to resume his staring at the ceiling, most likely assuming that the conversation was over.

However, Mars wasn't about to let him cut the discussion short, unless the man really didn't want to talk at the moment. She didn't want to give up quite yet. The topic surely had to be more interesting than counting tiles.

"Yes, I have definitely gotten to know your personality very well and vice versa, not to mention that we can practically read each other's expressions like a book. I'm not talking about that, though. What I meant to say was that we only know each other's history after a certain point in time. I'm not sure what your life was like before we first met at that interview, and I don't think I've ever told you my story either."

The blue-haired man suddenly began to stare at Mars intensely, but his state of mind was hard to determine by looking at his expression. So much for being able to read him like a book.

"I am willing to talk about my earlier life, sir, so long as you wish to listen. Would you like to hear about my past? It's not something I would usually share, and I can't remember the last time I gave any the information to another person. But now that I'm sitting here next to you... I would say that my role as a subordinate has changed slightly. At this point in time, you're going to have to trust me enough to believe that I hold your best interests at heart. In turn, I will put my trust in your willingness to let me help you recover. I figure I can start us off by giving you information about the past that I have never revealed to you."

Cyrus continued to harbor the same glare on his face throughout Mars's talking, but the man's expression softened into a more neutral gaze once she finished.

"You may tell me your life's history if you so desire to. I am willing to listen."

Well, this looked like Mars's cue to begin. The red-haired woman started thinking about what to say first. Maybe she should just begin her story from the very start, or at least what she could remember of it.

I'll try to get the next chapter posted a week from now, I hope you're all interessted in Mars's past.


	18. Chapter 18

In this chapter, Mars tells Cyrus of her childhood, including a traumatic incident that changed her life forever.

This chapter contains a scene with some violence, though it doesn't last long.

"I was the youngest amongst three children. My sister was the eldest of us, she was older than me by seven whole years. Then there's my brother, who was born four years ahead of me. I never did get along well with the two of them. I think they both resented me for taking too much of our parents' attention."

Mars had been watching her boss while talking to make sure he wasn't losing too much interest, but her concerns seemed to be for naught, at least for the moment. She continued.

"As for me? I hated the attention. It was always 'Mary put that down,' or 'no, Mary, you're too young to do that' or 'you can't go outside without one of your big siblings, Mary.' When they weren't talking about what a cute little baby I was, they were scolding me for something or other. It was pretty unbearable."

The red-haired woman stopped for a moment when she realized something- this was the first time in years that she was speaking her given name. Even while on the run, she had come up with countless names to give, but never had she used "Mary." Even people she trusted, she had told to call her "Mars". She wondered if Cyrus had even remembered her old name.

"I wanted to have a Pokémon, but my parents said that I couldn't until I was eleven. Both my brother and sister had Pokémon, and had gotten theirs at a much younger age. I sometimes asked if I could interact with my sibling's Pokémon, but all I ever got was, 'not until you grow up, it's too dangerous'. I knew that the real answer was that they wanted to have something I didn't. I'm sure that they were always colluding against me at every possible opportunity."

Thinking back, it could have been possible that they were just doing what their parents had said, or really did worry about Mars's safety. Still, what had happened next hadn't changed, no matter how many years had gone by. Mars had done what she had and there was no going back- not now, not ever.

"As the odd one out, I grew ever more resentful of my family. Then, when I was eleven... that's where it all fell apart. Just one night, and suddenly I was no longer welcome as a member of the family."

One incident, just one, and she had known her life would never be the same. Mars wondered what would have happened if things had gone differently. Where would she be now if that was the case?

"What exactly took place?" Cyrus's sharp tone quickly shook Mars out of her drifting thoughts. Right, she had been explaining this all to her leader and needed to continue.

"Oh, the incident, yes. Well, the day I turned eleven, after anticipating it for years, the day I could finally have my own Pokémon... or so I thought. As it turned out, my parents had decided that I still wasn't ready, that I would have to wait another year or so. Then, they said, maybe I'd be 'mature' enough to handle one. Naturally, I didn't take this news very well. As I'm sure you remember, I used to have, well, a bit of a temper. I screamed at my parents off and on pretty much all day until I could barely talk, and may have thrown a thing or two into the wall. Still, the real incident didn't happen until later that night."

For the first time since Cyrus's argument with Saturn earlier, Mars turned her glance away from her leader and down to the floor. Should she really tell him this? What would he think of her afterwards?

"Yes, I remember your temper, Mars. I couldn't count the times that I had to hold you back from starting fights... or continuing them. If I recall, you even yelled at me a handful of times, even if you stopped yourself fairly quickly. Despite this, however, you have come extremely far. You learned when to hold your tongue under my directions. Shortly after I hired Charon as a commander, I had misgivings about the possibility that you might get in some sort of fight with him, which would put a hold on our Red Chain project. However, you ended up proving me wrong, and cooperated with my assignments, no matter how much you despised him. Recently you managed to convince Charon to help you, and kept cool no matter how many times he changed his promises. You even managed to stop me from responding to Saturn's provocation today."

Raising her head and once again facing her boss, she suddenly realized that he wasn't going to hold her story against her, no matter what she had done. She had changed, and the person she was before no longer existed. Cyrus had greatly helped her turn her life around, and the least she could do now was help him with his. First, of course, the story.

"By the time I was sure the rest of my family had gone to sleep, I had come up with a plan. It was completely reckless, but if I could pull it off, maybe I would finally have my own Pokémon. That way, I would prove to my family that I was ready. The plan started with me sneaking into my brother and sister's room, who both shared a bunk bed, and sneaking out with my brother's bag. In the bag were the Pokéballs containing his three Pokémon, as well as some spare empty ones. My plan was rather simple- go outside with the stolen bag and catch a Pokémon for myself. I intended to use one of my brother's Pokémon to weaken my target."

After that... Mars almost didn't want to think about it again. She had to, though, the story was already in the process of being told and the was no stopping now.

"You left the house and tried to catch a Pokémon? I could see where you would get into deep trouble, but being exiled from your family? That sounds far too extreme of a punishment."

It seemed that Cyrus truly had no idea as to what was coming next. The red-haired woman sighed and continued speaking.

"That's not the whole story, I'm afraid. I made it out of the house without being caught, and traveled down the route my house was parked more or less in the middle of. I fished out one of my brother's Pokémon from the bag and walked off of the road and into a wooded area. There was a full moon that night, so I could see where I was going for the most part. Still, the foliage was thick, and it was a little difficult to progress. Determined as I was, however, I walked on until I finally heard something moving in the brush. That was my chance, and I took it. As it turned out, the Pokémon in the brush was considerably larger than I had imagined it would be. No matter, though, my brother had a strong team, having been in this area quite often. I threw my brother's Pokéball with confidence, and soon the two creatures were staring each other down."

The red-haired woman could remember the scene like it was yesterday. The two powerful Pokémon, both considerably larger than Mars, who had been very short to begin with, even for her age. That moment... and what had followed.

"Let me guess- one of the members of your family stepped in and was severely injured trying to protect you."

Cyrus's guess wasn't all that far off, but the truth was much worse than that. If only it had been a Pokémon who had delivered that blow...

"You're close... well kind of, but I'm afraid that wasn't exactly how it played out. I instructed my brother's Pokémon to use an attack I had heard him order countless times. I even knew that the move would have a type advantage against my target. Unfortunately, I didn't know that I couldn't catch a Pokémon that had fainted back then. Of course, if the other Pokémon had just fainted and I had gone back to my house, what played out next would probably never had happened. After I called the move, my brother's Pokémon didn't actually move to attack, to my great surprise. I could only watch as the wild Pokémon attacked again and again, as nothing I could say would prompt the Pokémon to attack."

The panic that followed… she had never been so scared in her life.

"So your brother's Pokémon was brutally attacked by a wild one, and your family never forgave you for that. I could see where that would create so much tension that you had to leave."

Once again, the blue-haired man had underestimated the result of the situation. Pokémon fighting were no big deal, she surely would have been forgiven for that eventually. But the story wasn't over yet.

"Yes, the wild Pokémon attacked my brother's, but not even enough to knock it out. As it turned out, the wild Pokémon soon got bored of a target that wouldn't react... and turned to me. As the enemy Pokémon got ready to charge, I screamed, ducking down and hoping that it might somehow decide not to attack. Then, thankfully, or actually what turned out to be not so thankfully, I heard my brother call out from somewhere nearby. The next moment, I heard the attack hit, and the wild Pokémon was defeated in one move. You'd think that would have been the end of the incident, that my brother took back his bag and led me back out of the brush, where the rest of my family was waiting. What transpired next, however, was not that by far."

It was at that moment that Mars realized that she was starting to lose her composure telling the story. Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, the red-haired woman tried to calm herself down. It was all in the past, and none of it really mattered now... right?

"Something tells me that whatever you've been leading up to is finally going to be told. I'm listening Mars, and I will try not to judge you for an incident that took place over ten years ago."

She could only pray that Cyrus was telling the truth, that he wouldn't cast judgement. If he ended up deciding that the story was as damning as it was to Mars and expressed this, the red-haired woman wasn't sure that she would be able to react without bursting into tears.

"My brother was livid... as he was returning his Pokémon, I ran for it. I was terrified, between the near-death experience and my brother's expression, which wasn't one I had ever seen on him before that. If I had been smart, I would have kept running. That way the two of us would have had some time to calm down. Instead, I stopped to catch my breath, and decided that I wouldn't let my own brother intimidate me. I expected him to stop too, and maybe shout some choice words at me before dragging me home. He slowed down to a walk, but he didn't quit coming towards me. I backed up a bit, but only into a tree, preventing me from running away."

Cyrus frowned.

"At this point, it sounds like your brother would have been the one to get in trouble for attacking you, unless you acted in self-defense."

This time, the blue-haired man's guess had been dead-on. Mars drew another deep, shaky breath before going on.

"I... I didn't know what else to do. He looked like he was going to kill me. Panicking, I picked up a rock, and threw it in hopes that it would snap him back to reason. I must have thrown it with more strength than I had intended, because it sailed through the air in a high arc. The next thing I knew, my brother was lying on the ground. He was at least alive, but unconscious, and I soon realized that he was bleeding from the head where the rock had hit him. I froze, completely unsure of what to do. Soon, I heard the footsteps of my father, mother, and sister coming closer. My father was holding a flashlight, which he shone on my fallen brother. Then, the beam of light slowly moved my way."

That moment when the light had hit her... and her father's face when he realized what she must have done. She could picture the scene perfectly.

"So then your father told you to leave and never come back, right?" Cyrus questioned.

"Not exactly, but I didn't hang around to find out what he was going to say. Instead, I ran, strongly determined not to look back. Miraculously, I made it out of the forest without being successfully attacked by wild Pokémon, though the road to the next town was very close from where I had been. After that, I decided that I had to leave the region. Though the problem was, I had no money. So I stole what supplies I could, nearly getting caught more than once, and snuck on a cargo ship as a stowaway. I had no idea where it was going, but anywhere had to be better than there."

Those freezing nights spent hidden in a large cargo box... day after day.

"I assume that's when you ended up in Sinnoh. What happened then? You were much older than eleven when you applied for a job, unless you've been lying about your age all this time."

"Yes, I ended up in Sinnoh, but it was still years before I met you. I spent all of them homeless, my only company being a Glameow that I had stolen from a mill as a kitten. I tried to find jobs, but I was hardly ever accepted, and when I was, some sort of incident came up and I didn't have the job for long. That is, until around four years later. That's when I applied for a job in Veilstone... and met you."


	19. Chapter 19

Here's chapter 19. Sorry it took so long for me to post it, I added it elsewhere but forgot to update it here.

This chapter continues Mars's past, this time telling what happened after she met Cyrus.

Thanks for the awesome reviews, guys, and thanks to everybody reading or helping me promote this fic as well!

As it had turned out, Cyrus wasn't actually in charge of the company yet when Mars had applied. Still, he had been a rather high-ranking staff member, and it was only luck that her application had landed in his hands. Really, she didn't expect much. The company was mostly looking for skilled workers, and she didn't exactly fit the bill. Her only reason for applying was that she desperately needed a job, so she had applied for any one she could find.

To her great surprise, the company mailed her back a letter asking her in for an interview. She showed up right on time, and nervously tapped on the door. That was the moment when she first saw the man who was going to change her life. She didn't know it then, though, and her first impression of the blue-haired man was that he looked like he thought the interview was a waste of his time.

Mars had told Cyrus about how she had lived the last few years. The jobs she had taken, the places in Sinnoh she had lived in, and the skills she had learned. Somehow, she got the job. Even to this day, she wasn't quite sure why he had accepted her. From what she was later told, the usual hiring manager was out sick, and Cyrus had volunteered to take over for a week, which had ended up being several instead. Really though- she had been completely unskilled in the field, and couldn't list one job that she had stayed at for over a month.

Even though she lacked the proper training, she managed to keep the job. She ended up being given extensive on-the-job training, and learned the ropes from there. For some reason though, she couldn't stop running into Cyrus. Whether it was while delivering files, coming and leaving the building (although she was still homeless at the time), or even leaving her work to take a break, the man always seemed to be passing her by. He didn't wave or say hello, and wasn't even looking at her half the time. Still, Mars had decided that this had to be some sort of sign pertaining to her destiny.

As fate would have it, one day she was shaken out of her normal routine by a loud, blaring alarm. Soon following this sound was an announcement over the loudspeaker that a fire had broken out in the building! As she began towards the evacuation route, something caught her eye. It appeared that an all-too-familiar blue-haired man was trying to get down to a lower floor, but he was trying to go down a different staircase, one that didn't lead to the shortest escape route, not by far.

Deciding that she owed the man a favor, the red-haired employee pushed her way back through the crowd, trying to stay low as to inhale less smoke. When she finally reached the man, she tried to direct him over to the faster staircase. However, the man refused, insisting that all of his work was on a laptop on the floor below, and that he wouldn't be able to access it from the other escape route. Deciding that there was no time to argue with the man, she agreed to go with him to retrieve his computer.

As it had turned out, the computer that Cyrus had wanted to take out was melted by the heat, and the hard drive was obviously ruined. It was at this point that Cyrus spotted a younger-looking man, who also had blue hair, albeit a much darker shade. The younger man quickly apologized for the computer being destroyed, as if it were his fault, then stated the obvious- they had to get out of the building.

The three people managed to get close to the entrance- but there was rubble blocking the hallway. Cyrus, Saturn, and Mars all sent out their Pokémon to try and break through, but the fallen piece of wall had hardly budged, even with the Murkrow, Glameow, and Croagunk all working in tandem. Mars had expected that to be the end- she was growing fainter by the second and a quick glance to her left revealed that Cyrus was already out cold.

The woman was about to run over to Cyrus when a purple Pokémon seemed to appear out of nowhere and launch into the blockage, finally pushing down the wall piece and making enough space to escape.

Immediately, Mars picked up her unconscious superior and climbed through the created path, Saturn and the four Pokémon following directly behind. Once this was done, Mars carried Cyrus through the hallway, out of the building, and into safety.

Once outside, Mars found herself being approached by a stern-looking woman with purple hair. The woman seemed to immediately recognize Cyrus as one of the highest-ranking staff members in the company. She told Mars to hand Cyrus over to her so that he could be given immediate medical attention, and further explained that she could get him to an ambulance faster than Mars could once the red-haired woman began to hesitate.

Without further consideration, Mars transferred Cyrus to the purple-haired woman, trusting the man's life in her hands. As the woman ran off with the blue-haired man's unconscious body in the arms, the purple Pokémon from the building, which Mars now recognized as a Stunky, followed behind the other woman as she left.

What happened next was more or less a blur, Mars must have at some point been ferried to the hospital, as that's where she remembered waking up the next morning. She then pestered the staff until they told her how Cyrus was doing. He had apparently been exposed to more smoke than she had, most likely because he had been standing for most of the time and not staying close to the floor as she and Saturn had. They told her that it was likely that Cyrus would live, but also that the man wasn't getting discharged any time soon.

Once the smoke had cleared around what exactly was going to happen, so to speak, Mars was told that she would still have her job, and that the company headquarters would be rebuilt on the spot. Additionally, she learned that Cyrus had been the highest-ranking staff member to survive, and it was decided that despite whatever had been on the laptop being gone, he would be put in charge of the company once the man had recovered.

Soon enough, Mars found herself being promoted to the title of "Commander". She wasn't yet sure of what or who she was going to command, but Cyrus had told her that it was the highest title he could give, and that only two other employees had gotten it.

Once the red-haired woman had finally come back from her daydreaming, she decided that if she was going to find out about Cyrus's past, now was the time to do it.

"Master Cyrus, that's about all there is to know about me. Could you, if I may ask, tell me a little about your life before Galactic?"

At this question, Cyrus's expression suddenly changed.

"No, I will not, and that is final," the blue-haired man replied, his tone sounding firm and somewhat bothered.

His expression showed much more than simple annoyance, however. Somehow, Mars could guess that the reason he didn't want to talk about his past wasn't simply because he didn't think it was necessary. There was something about the look in his eyes that told her he was deeply shaken by the mention of his earlier life. It was almost the same look she had seen when she had offered him pills.

That settled it- the man obviously had a traumatic history, and the last thing he needed now was to be reminded of it. However, that didn't stop Mars from thinking back to what little she had learned in the past without Cyrus telling her.

About a year after Cyrus had disappeared, the red-haired woman had been scrounging up every single bit of information that could be a clue to the man's whereabouts, or at least to somebody that might be able to help. In her searching, she had at one point tried to search for the rest of Cyrus's family, if they stfdill lived. After a long, frustrating search (and a lot of Akagis, if that even was his real last name), she had almost been ready to give up. However, some information had then surfaced from an old Sunyshore city newspaper.

The article was ancient, but it did mention something about a boy named "Cyrus Akagi" winning some sort of prize for young engineers. It briefly mentioned his mother, Alice, and his father, who wasn't actually mentioned by name, and how they said that the expected more great things out of their son.

Lots of phonebook searching later (as she could find no sign of an "Alice Akagi" online, or at least not one that looked like they could be Cyrus's mother), and Mars had finally found the name "Alice Akagi" in Sunyshore. The number had actually gone through when Mars had phoned, and there was certainly a woman on the other line whose tone of voice sounded eerily similar to Galactic's leader's.

Mars had tried to explain that she was an old friend of Cyrus's and was concerned for the man after coming back to Sinnoh to find that he had been missing for a year. The former commander had then told the woman that any sort of information as to how she might look for him would be a blessing. As it turned out, the woman on the other line responded that there must have been a mistake, that she had no relation to Cyrus whatsoever, and frankly she was offended that anyone would try to assume that she was related to "that monster". Once she had finished speaking, the woman Mars had called them immediately hung up.

At first, Mars actually believed the woman, and figured that she must have made some sort of error in her research. The more she thought about it, however, the more suspicious that woman's response had sounded. As a matter of fact, the response Mars had gotten over the phone had been a little too insistent. Unless the woman in Sunyshore was constantly getting calls asking if she was related to the infamous criminal, she wouldn't have too much reason to get that offended.

Still, Mars figured that walking around Sunyshore and knocking on doors looking for Cyrus's family would not be the best of ideas. Thus, she had decided to pack things up and head to Unova for a new life.

Now that she was thinking about it, however, Mars had a feeling that she was finally putting more of the pieces together. The way Cyrus had looked at Mars when she had tried to bring up his past, the way that woman she had phoned had talked about Cyrus as if he were subhuman... and then there was that letter on Cyrus's email that Mars had found, from a man apparently named "Caelum Akagi".

At first she had thought that Cyrus was just worried that she would find something personal, embarrassing, or even scandalous when he had told her to close his personal email folder with such alarm. Considering the evidence that was now coming together, however, maybe the letter from "Caelum Akagi" was what her boss didn't want her to see. That had to be the name of his father, or some other closely related family member.

Of course, there would be no point in trying to bring up Cyrus's past again, and she would stay off the subject so long as the man didn't bring the matter up by himself. Even if he had been abused by his parents or had some other kind of childhood trauma, it really wasn't Mars's business to know if her leader didn't want to tell her.

Focusing back on the present, it appeared that the blue-haired man had drifted back to sleep. It was hardly unexpected- considering the physical exertion he had made while arguing with Saturn, in addition to the effect of whatever emotions he was trying (and for once failing) to conceal. Compound that with the physical (and mental) condition he was in after the Distortion World (as well as the impact of the pain meds he was on), and frankly it was a wonder that the man had held onto conscience for so long.

At this point, Mars was, if anything, actually relieved to see the man getting some rest. From the peaceful expression on his face, it appeared that he probably hadn't started dreaming yet. This was surely for the better, the red-haired woman could only imagine the kind of nightmares he most likely had to be experiencing on a regular basis.

She couldn't help but remember monitoring her leader back at the apartment- sometimes he had moved around so violently in his sleep that Mars became concerned that he would injure himself, especially considering his poor physical condition. She also recalled that he would occasionally mutter what seemed to be words or phrases, but the woman hadn't managed to decipher a word of exactly what he was saying. Often the man would wake up in what appeared to be a cold sweat, after which Mars would act like nothing was wrong and not dare to ask Cyrus anything about his nightmares.

Observing the man now, Mars found some comfort in watching the blue-haired man's chest rise and fall in time with his breathing, which seemed to be far more even than the red-haired woman had seen it in a while, even including earlier that day when she was waiting for him to wake up.

However, watching Cyrus sleep could only occupy Mars's interest for a rather short amount of time, particularly since she had already done it for countless hours back at the apartment. Once she had checked to make sure that there still was a medical professional keeping an eye on her boss, Mars decided that going back to sleep might be a good idea. After she had pulled the blankets that had partially fallen off of Cyrus when he sat up to yell at Saturn back over the man's arms and upper body, Mars took one last glance at her sleeping leader before standing up and heading over to her bed.

Will Cyrus end up learning to actually trust other people? Will he ever give up on his old plans? Expect more interactions between Cyrus and Mars next chapter.

...which I want to be working on instead of playing Dragon Age: Origins, but that should change once my writing motivatiom kicks into gear.


End file.
